The Unforeseen Anomaly
by Gone Wanderlust
Summary: "A race of gargantuan, sentient machines coming to wipe out all life in the galaxy...?" Kurama questioned incredulously inside his mind, "That is certainly a new one." Naruto Uzumaki grinned widely at the redhead standing in front of him. "You know what it sounds like to me?" he replied to the demon, a wild excitement coursing through his veins. "It sounds like a challenge."
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything from Mass Effect series. I do not own anything from the Naruto series.**

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Warnings: AU, Dimension Travel, Graphic Violence, Strong Language

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Chapter One: Down the Rabbit Hole

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Shepard stepped out of the elevator onto the floor of the CIC whilst absently scratching at the shoulder of her new uniform. She didn't like the white and black. It fit perfectly of course, Cerberus had very _intimate_ knowledge on her sizes after all, but it still felt very, _very_ wrong.

Everything felt wrong really.

Her world didn't make sense anymore. It hadn't made sense from the moment she woke up on that ice-cold table on that god-forsaken space station.

Jane scowled deeply as she stepped up to the galactic interface, and she tried her best to drive her thoughts away from that darkness. Away from the utter abyss that was her supposed death. It was for nothing however. All she needed to do was open her eyes and look around to see all of the reminders staring back at her. Her ship wasn't her ship anymore. Her crew wasn't her crew. Her body didn't feel like _her body_ anymore either. She could feel the pull from the still healing wounds along her jaw and could see the unnatural glow shining out from her implants there.

Karin had assured her that the wounds would heal, that the glow would fade with time, but Jane knew that that wasn't _true_. Not really. No matter how much her skin healed, or how her body recovered, she'd never be able to forget that first time she'd looked in the mirror. That first time she'd seen what had become of her.

She hadn't cried in many, many years. She was a soldier, and a damn good one too. One of the absolute best apparently, if Cerberus was willing to bring her _back to life_ because of it. Even so, when she'd retired to her new cabin for the first time and had taken that first look at her visage in the mirror she vividly remembered breaking down and bawling like a child, alone in that little grey bathroom. She vividly remembered that feeling of denial upon seeing her tears slide down a face she didn't remember having, remembered that overwhelming anguish upon seeing just how far Cerberus had been willing to go to bring her back.

A part of her knew she should feel grateful. That she should be thanking Miranda or The Illusive Man or whoever had helped them. No matter how evil Cerberus was to the outside observer, or how much of an absolute bastard The Illusive Man was, she still knew that she'd be a very _dead_ woman right now if it wasn't for them. Another part of her wanted to scream and rage at them. She wanted to tear them all limb from bloody limb. They'd taken her from her final resting place and desecrated her dead body. They'd cut and sewn and stitched her back together to be their perfect little soldier. She still remembered Operative Taylor's words when they'd first met.

"… _nothing but meat and tubes. Anywhere else and they'd have put you in a coffin."_

A bitter voice buried deep in her mind screamed that they should have settled for the coffin.

A third part of her wanted to just sit down somewhere. Somewhere far, far away from this ship that wasn't her ship. To just sit there, and not think. She could never stop the destination of her thoughts anymore. They were always going in circles now, and she desperately wanted them to _stop_. She desperately wanted _everything_ to stop.

She couldn't stop though.

The fourth part of her, the part of her that always put one foot in front of the other knew this. She knew it in her heart and down to her bones. There would be no stopping for her, no rest from this world. She'd been dragged kicking and screaming out of her icy grave because the world wouldn't _allow_ her to stop.

Because someone had to defeat the Reapers. Apparently, that someone had to be her.

So here she was. A dead woman, a patch work figure, leading a fake Normandy filled with fake people. The only two faces she could find comfort in were her dear pilot and her dear doctor, both of whom had been roped into this absolute clusterfuck of a mission. She was grateful to them. She really, _truly_ was. If she'd boarded this new Normandy filled with Cerberus and had found no one she knew…she didn't know what she would have done. She would forever be grateful that she at least had those two with her now. She'd _never_ forget it.

There was no one else though.

Her crew was scattered to the four winds. Her _family_ , those she'd fought with through thick and thin were gone. They'd "moved on" as The Illusive Man claimed.

When she'd touched down on Freedom's Progress her world had made even less sense then. She'd been blank faced and trying her absolute hardest to keep herself together. She'd remained silent for the ride there outside of the questions those two operatives had posed for her, and she'd only spoken on the ground when she'd needed to give orders. She hadn't trusted herself to speak, to not just break down gibbering like a loon…and when they ran into Tali she'd seen the disbelief covering every inch of her friend. She hadn't been able to see her face of course, but her eyes had very nearly popped out of her enviro-suit's mask. The Quarian hadn't been able to believe at first. Shepard didn't blame her.

When Tali had asked if it was really her, she'd tried to reassure her, mentioning the data she'd given her for her pilgrimage a lifetime ago. Outwardly, she'd tried to prove she was who she thought she was.

Inside though, her mind had screamed that she hadn't a damn clue. She didn't know who, or even _what_ she was anymore.

And then Tali had left. She went back to her own mission, and she moved on.

Jane couldn't move on. Cerberus hadn't _let_ her move on.

"…Commander?"

Jane started violently where she was standing, and she realized with a strange sense of detachment that she'd been standing there staring at the hologram in front of her for nearly five minutes. She almost felt embarrassed when she took in the concerned gazes of her new "crew" as they tried and failed to hide their worry. She didn't though. Embarrassment couldn't even register on her emotional spectrum anymore, there was no room for it next to everything else. She slowly turned her head to look at the woman who'd addressed her, the apparent Yeoman of her new ship. Chambers, or whatever her name was, was staring into her eyes with an overwhelming amount of concern.

Shepard didn't trust that face. She didn't trust any of their faces, or their concern.

"What?" she heard herself ask, and she almost couldn't believe how her own voice had sounded then.

The Yeoman flinched minutely at her tone, undoubtedly hearing just how completely flat it was. There was nothing in her voice. Just letters and words.

"Ah-," the woman began, visibly trying to think of what to say, and apparently not sure in any way, "…are you…alright ma'am?"

Jane frowned, a strong downward twist of her mouth that caused a twinge of pain to lance through the right side of her face. She didn't say anything for a long moment, and her fellow red-head visibly quailed under her new Commander's uncompromising, green-eyed stare.

Finally, Shepard nodded, a tiny dip of her chin, and she turned away to stare at the galaxy map before her again, "I'm fine."

It was a complete and utter lie. She knew it, and absolutely everyone who was privy to her current state knew it too. But no one said anything.

Chambers nodded like she _understood_ , and Jane fought down that tiny urge in her gut to reach out and slap the woman.

The Yeoman wisely moved on, and then Jane had to fight that urge even harder at the woman's next words.

"The Illusive Man wishes to speak with you in the Briefing-room Commander."

She didn't slap the woman though. No matter how far down the rabbit hole she fell she remained content in the knowledge that she still hadn't gone violent or homicidal yet. So instead, she nodded once more, still having only spoken two words, and left to speak with her new…benefactor.

The crew watched her go, an uneasy feeling hanging in the air around them. Kelly watched with an extra dose of concern. The perky red-head frowned even harder when her commander was out of sight, and the Psychologist silently vowed to do anything she could to help the broken woman who'd just walked away from them. Even though she had absolutely no idea _how_.

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Jane grimaced at the lights surrounding her as the communicator booted up. She'd talked to The Illusive Asshole _yesterday_. Why in God's name did he have to call on her again so soon. The very idea that she was being called on, even _could_ be called on, by the head of Cerberus rankled something awful.

However, when she opened her mouth to rudely question what the hell the man wanted, she abruptly found herself not saying a word.

She'd spoken to the head of Cerberus several times now since she'd risen from the dead, and she already felt like she had a handle on his character. He was confidence personified, whilst being utterly laid back. He was calm, and intense all at once. When he spoke he always sounded completely assured in whatever he said. He was a man who held all the cards, knew he held all the cards, and had absolutely no qualms laying those cards down on your grave.

But this time something was very different.

He did not look confident. He did not look laid back. He was sitting ramrod straight in his little throne. He was not calm. His glowing eyes were darting here and there across the screens before him with an intensity that belied almost…panic…and when he spoke he did _not_ sound assured in any way.

"Shepard," he began, not even looking at her. He was seemingly unable to tear his eyes away from whatever it was he was reading. He took a long pull from the cigarette in his hands, and she absently noted the butts littering the ground around his feet. A carton lay open next to him, and his ash tray was completely full. "I'm…sorry for calling you again so soon. But-" He faltered here, stopping his sentence whilst staring at a particular screen. He didn't move for a very long moment, appearing to be almost perfectly still, before he finally spoke again, "Something has happened."

If she hadn't been feeling like a piece of cardboard, she'd probably have scoffed at him. His entire demeanor screamed that something big had happened.

The way he said the word "something" gave her pause however. "Was another colony hit?" she questioned, inwardly worrying at the prospect. Would the Collectors do that? The trend separated the abductions by weeks, and Freedom's progress had only been hit a few days ago. It was far too soon.

The Illusive man looked down at her question, seemingly staring at the ground before his feet. She marveled at how uncertain that simple act made him look, so at odds with everything she'd seen from him. He shook his head minutely, and she was stunned again when he replied with a remarkably subdued, "…No."

He didn't continue, and she had a front row seat to watch his eyes stare into the middle distance. After a minute, when it seemed that he'd sunk into a very uncharacteristic trance of hyper fast thought, she'd finally had enough. As intriguing as it was to watch the secretive man flounder, she didn't really care to watch for long. She had things to do. Like not talking to him.

"Did one of your insane experiments slip the leash again?" she questioned darkly, remembering with picture perfect clarity the dead body of Admiral Kahoku surrounded by mad Rachni and Thorian creepers.

The Illusive Man stirred again at the sound of her voice, and after a moment shook his head, not reacting to her blatant disdain.

"No," he replied again, sounding just as quiet as his last denial. He gripped the arm rests on either side of himself, and rose from his chair, looking almost regal in the action. She wanted to scoff again at his pretentiousness, but when he stood at his full height and looked at her, she found herself remaining silent. Because at that moment, his eyes stared directly into her own for the first time since the call started, and she had a very clear view into his thoughts.

He looked completely, utterly lost.

He didn't look slack jawed, or even overwhelmed. He was very obviously trying to keep his calm. His expression was shuddered with his mouth pressed into a firm line, but his glowing eyes said it _all_.

For what was probably the first time in a very long time, he quite simply didn't know what the hell was going on.

Two years ago, if she knew what she did now, she'd probably have laughed long and loud at his face. She didn't however. She settled for the dark undercurrent of mirth that bubbled under the surface, and didn't say anything. She did quirk an eyebrow however when the man walked several steps forward to stand before her shimmering hologram. They stood eye to eye, separated by countless leagues of space, and he was the first to speak again.

"I'm going to be honest with you Shepard."

' _No you're not,'_ that dark part of her thoughts murmured, and she prepared herself for whatever bullshit he was about to spew to convince her to take care of his problems.

A tick passed, a moment of emphasis, and then he spoke again in a quiet tone, "I am a liar."

She blinked, momentarily stunned, _'…or maybe you will,'_ those same dark thoughts murmured again.

"I lie constantly. I _must_ lie constantly. It is my trade. The world we live in is one that lives and dies on secrets and information, all information, no matter how insignificant," he turned away from her then, and stuffed the hand that wasn't holding his cigarette into his pocket. He stared out the window, gazing at the bright ball of burning gas that floated beyond. He looked down again, and she could see the nape of his neck as he stared at his shoes.

"I have spies on every major home-world, feeds from every black-ops organization known to Humanity. I've born witness to the absurd, the unbelievable, and the horrible in our world. In the last few decades since the founding of Cerberus I have seen many, _many_ things."

She frowned, hoping that he was actually going somewhere with this. He must be, because she couldn't imagine anything that could shake him so badly.

He glanced over his shoulder at her, and his next words came out subtly bewildered whilst also very pained, "But today…I've seen something I simply do not understand. Something that I have _never_ seen before in my entire life."

She stared at him with a pair of very wide eyes.

' _Oh.'_

She had never expected to ever hear those words pass his lips. Indeed, even _he_ looked like he'd never expected to say those words. He was very visibly struggling with the admission.

"I am very used to lying Shepard, but right now…I do not even have the words to lie. I do not have the words to tell the truth either. I quite simply do not have words. All I can do is show you what I have seen."

To say that Jane was feeling apprehensive was a very big understatement. She was currently staring at a man who'd ordered experiments on Rachni, on Thorian creepers, and on other _Humans_. A man who as he'd just said, had direct feeds on every black-ops organization out there. A man who knew about the Collectors. A man who knew the truth about the Reapers themselves. She knew he wasn't lying when he claimed that those cybernetic eyes of his had seen many, _many_ things.

 _So what the bloody hell could he have possibly seen to put him in this state?_

Did she even want to know?

Should she walk out of the communication room this very instant, and get the hell away from whatever earth-shattering news he had to share?

She was definitely considering it.

Before she could come to a decision however, The Illusive Man swiftly turned back to his holographic interfaces and began typing. His finger hovered over a final key, seeming to hesitate at the last moment, but then his shoulders visibly slumped.

"The videos I'm about to show you were taken at one of our remote bases on Noveria, called Firebase White. It is shrouded by mountains and snow, very far from any of the Corporate holdings that are also hidden on the planet. They're timestamped as having occurred approximately seven hours ago."

Without another word his finger descended to tap the key, and he turned away once again. Jane didn't have time to get a word in edgewise before her vision was filled with a large projection that blocked her view of anything else. It was filled with several rows of video feeds, no doubt from the security cameras within and outside of the facility. They played simultaneously for a moment before one of them abruptly grew to fill the entirety of the projection.

It was a security feed that covered a portion of the facility's outer premises. It panned back and forth across the snow drifts silently watching for any irregularities. The overcast sky of Noveria was relatively calm, and it hung along the top of the feed. In the distance a set of snow capped mountains reached high into that same sky. There was nothing else however. Nothing was happening. The only movement she could see aside from the slow turning of the camera was the lightly falling snow.

Then abruptly, that changed.

She first noticed the strange glow in the clouds a few moments after it began, having been too busy scanning the ground rather than the sky. However, as that golden glow grew steadily brighter, and then blinding, she couldn't help but see it. The clouds did a good job of trying to hide it, but whatever was falling through that cloud cover was simply too bright to hide for more than a few moments.

Then the falling glow broke through the clouds.

She initially believed it to be a falling meteorite. It was a very small one if it was. But then she looked closer, and Shepard realized that the object falling from the sky was far too small to generate such a brilliant glow. The meteorite would have needed to be much bigger to generate even half of that much energy upon entry to the atmosphere.

The unidentified object fell faster, streaking though the sky like a falling missile. She watched as it fell closer and closer to the base, never leaving the camera's view, until it finally landed. It slammed into the face of one of the mountains across from the facility, and an absolutely titanic explosion shook the land. The camera view vibrated violently, and Jane could easily imagine the entire area surrounding the base shaking as though struck by an earthquake.

When the shaking finally stopped Jane was granted a full view of the aftermath.

A gargantuan crater had been formed in the side of the mountain's upper face. Dust and obliterated rock wafted into the sky from the impact point. The crater stretched many dozens of meters across, and as she watched, an avalanche of epic proportions began cascading down the mountain below it. The video continued to play for a full minute longer until the dust finally settled.

The feed abruptly ended, and a new video feed took its place. The voice of The Illusive man drifted into her ears from beyond her sight. He sounded just as subdued as he'd been since the call had started.

"A team scrambled a shuttle to investigate. This next video was taken twenty-two minutes following the impact."

She didn't look away to address the Cerberus head, and in fact she barely even registered that he'd spoken at all. She immediately recognized the new feed as one coming from a body-camera. She couldn't see who was wearing it, but in front of the camera's owner were several people all hiking up the demolished mountain face in a single file line. All of them were decked out in heavy winter clothing bearing the distinct colors and insignia of Cerberus. They trekked up the mountain in the direction of the nearby crater, and none of them spoke. She vividly remembered the biting chill of Noveria and knew that they were no doubt too cold to even consider opening their mouths.

Finally, after a few minutes of watching them struggle up the freshly disturbed mountain, they reached the lip of the massive crater, and the first sound she heard from the Cerberus team was a collective intake of astonished breath.

When the little camera finally came into focus on the epicenter of the massive crater, Jane joined them in gasping with everything she had.

Then she froze…and just _stared_.

No one moved. The Cerberus team stood there frozen in place. Shepard stood there staring along with them. No one said a word. Not the team in the video, not Jane, and not the Illusive man who was no doubt watching her every reaction. There quite simply were no words that could be said.

For there, laying nestled in the absolute center of the massive crater, flanked on all sides by jutting ridges of destroyed rock, was an impossibility.

A body lay cradled there. A _Human_ body.

A man, blank faced with eyes closed, was sprawled there looking for all the world like he'd just decided to lay down on the jutting rock to take an afternoon nap.

Jane's mind blanked. What she was seeing simply did not parse. Everything about what she was seeing was wrong. She knew _intimately_ that it was wrong.

Her body had suffered atmospheric re-entry. She'd thankfully been very dead by that point, as the ruptured seal on her armor had mercifully killed her from a lack of oxygen before she could feel anything more. But she knew what had happened after that.

"… _meat and tubes,"_ Taylor had said.

She'd been wearing armor for her re-entry, and her helmet had done a truly fantastic job of keeping her brain intact. However, that didn't change the fact that the entire suit had practically melted onto her skin from the heat. That didn't change how her body had been completely broken upon impact, or how every bone in her body had been absolutely shattered.

The man that lay in the camera's view wasn't even wearing a single piece of armor. There was nothing that could have possibly protected him from burning to a crisp whilst passing through the atmosphere. In fact, he was completely naked, and while he was still a distance away she couldn't make out any obviously fatal injuries.

She stood there, jaw hanging wide open, and stared for a very long time. The team did as well, no doubt entranced by the absurd impossibility in front of them.

Then abruptly, the operative at the front of the team walked forward and began moving down the edge of the crater. That shook Shepard from the loop of complete incredulity her mind had fallen into, and she watched as the rest of the team came to a stop in front of the unconscious man.

He was young, in his early twenties at the latest, and his head was covered in a mess of unruly blond hair. A stray thought floated at the back of her mind telling her that his hair should have been burned from his scalp whilst falling at such a speed. Then her brain helpfully reminded her again that every other part of his body should have been burnt to a crisp as well. However, now that the team had come to stand beside the unconscious man, she could clearly see that he hadn't escaped atmospheric re-entry _completely_ unscathed.

There were a few gashes on his limbs, along with some bruises, scuffs, and burns.

But those were his _only_ injuries, there was nothing else marring him.

Jane had been standing there without moving for a long time, and she'd managed to stay upright without keeling over from the shock yet. However, as she stared at the man in the crater, she very nearly did fall over at what she noticed next.

Those same minor injuries that marred his skin were _healing_ …they were _visibly_ _healing_ before her very eyes. The bruises were steadily losing their color, and the skin around the slices on his chest and limbs were knitting back together again.

She'd fought a Krogan Battlemaster in the bowels of Therum when she'd first met Liara. That Battlemaster's regeneration had absolutely nothing on what she was witnessing in front of her.

The team didn't reach out to touch the unconscious man. They simply stood there and watched as she did. After a few minutes all that was left was pristine skin. The blond man was now truly unmarred, with the only oddity being that he was stark naked. He now truly did look like some young man who'd just fallen asleep on the mountainside, and yet, even with his wounds healed, he did not stir from unconsciousness.

Suddenly, the feed she was watching changed for a third and final time. This time she had a view of the inside of what appeared to be the infirmary of Firebase White. The only difference from this infirmary to a standard one, were the steel shackles welded upright on the metal tables. Upon one of the tables lay the unconscious man with his limps firmly secured within those steel shackles. He was still naked, but the Cerberus team had apparently been gracious enough to lay a towel across his waist to protect his decency.

She had a clear view of what was happening. Scientists scurried back and forth no doubt in an absolute frenzy while a very large number of guards armed with rifles lined the walls. She didn't pay them any mind however. Her eyes were firmly glued to the face and body of the unconscious man.

His face was perfectly still. There wasn't even a twitch across his entire body, and the only movement she could detect was the subtle rise and fall of his chest as he breathed. She studied his face, absently noting his strong jaw and handsome features. She studied his uncovered chest, perfectly aware of how outrageously sculpted he was. There wasn't an ounce of fat to be seen, and the skin was pulled tight even though the muscles there were completely relaxed. Whoever he was, _whatever_ he was, he was trained, with muscles for utility and not for show. She noted the scars covering his torso with another dose of incredulity on top of what she was already feeling. They were numerous and ridiculous, with one massive circular scar positioned directly above his heart.

He remained that way for several more minutes as the Science team descended into further chaos around him. Then, that body which had up until that moment been laying perfectly still, suddenly moved.

A huge intake of breath was heard, followed by several more, and his chest rose and feel as he suddenly began breathing deeply. The Science team froze, the soldiers stood absolutely stiff, and every head craned around to stare at the man on the table. The next sound they heard was a disjointed noise that escaped his throat, a word that wasn't really a word at all, and then…his eyes fluttered open.

And once again, Shepard found herself at a complete loss at what she was seeing.

His eyes were purple.

Completely purple.

There wasn't a trace of white sclera to be seen. Just a vast expanse of purple, and concentric rings lay there instead of an iris. That wasn't all however, for within that purple rested a set of very, _very_ irregular pupils.

A black cross lay in each eye. Two straight lines overlaid atop each other where a black dot should have been.

 _What the bloody hell…?_

Those otherworldly eyes fluttered for several seconds as the man regained consciousness, until he finally just lay there staring up at the ceiling above him.

After a few seconds of silence, the man blinked once more, only this time something changed. When he opened his eyes again, the impossibly strange eyes he'd previously sported were gone. Instead, a set of relatively normal eyes had taken their place. A pair of incredibly blue eyes gazed upward, clear cerulean reflecting the light hanging directly over his head.

They were starkly different from the eyes he'd had. There had been nothing but an unsettling expanse of purple before, deeply hypnotic and unending. Now, they were blue, and so very, _very_ _tired._

Finally, he spoke.

It was quiet, and only one sentence. It was also very obviously not spoken to anyone around him.

" _Fucking hell Kurama…that sucked."_

The translator on her omni-tool let her hear his words as they were delivered, and he said nothing more.

He lay there staring at the ceiling for a few moments longer before he abruptly moved again. With a very clear whine the steel shackles securing his wrists were torn through like so much tissue paper. They didn't hold up for even a fraction of a second as his wrists effortlessly came free.

Jane didn't even blink, and her eyes were beginning to dry out with her staring.

He sat up, his dusty blond hair falling into place around his visage, and he didn't spare the two broken steel manacles a single glance. Instead, he peered down at his legs, noting the shackles binding them as well, and with a deft twist he set his feet down on the ground beside the steel table. There wasn't a single pause. It was all one fluid movement. One moment his legs were trapped, and the next moment the steel bent in a way that steel _should_ _not_ bend, and he was free.

There he stood, naked as the day he was born with the towel now pooled around his feet. His cerulean gaze swept briefly around the infirmary, and his expression did not shift in the slightest as he took in the numerous armed guards now pointing rifles at his chest. He glanced down at himself, grimaced slightly, and then closed his eyes again for another spare moment.

Suddenly, without an ounce of warning, he had clothes on.

One second he'd been naked. The next he simply wasn't.

Jane made a small noise in the back of her throat as she watched this impossible man appear to _create_ _matter_ out of _nothing_.

All of the incredulous little voices in her head, the ones that had each been focusing on the various individual impossibilities up until that point, all suddenly began screaming in unison.

Forget surviving re-entry into the atmosphere whilst completely unarmored. Forget strength capable of tearing through steel.

The man casually standing there in the center of that infirmary had just broken the laws of the Universe.

The infirmary was silent as the grave. Jane could see the whites of the eyes of everyone in that room. She could tell even without having been present that their collective minds had likely shut down. Several of the scientists were visibly shaking, and the guards genuinely appeared to have forgotten their jobs. They'd probably forgotten that they were even armed, as the rifles aimed at his chest dipped slightly in numb grasps.

She was feeling very numb as well.

He straightened out his new clothes, reaching up to tug on the high collar on his long, white overcoat. She couldn't clearly see what he was wearing underneath it from the camera angle, she could only catch a flash of orange, but she could glimpse his back. A set of nine symbols were displayed in neat rows of three. They looked like strange commas to her eyes, and above them was a circular symbol. The circle had concentric rings within it much like his eyes had once bore.

Then he casually broke the laws of the Universe again.

His hand reached out seemingly grasping at nothing. Then all at once a pitch-black staff was there waiting for him. He plucked it from the air and tapped the butt of it against the cold floor. The set of six rings fixed within the ring at the top jangled lightly, and he leaned forward against it as his blue eyes panned around the room once more.

He gazed at each person surrounding him, one at a time. Each time his eyes landed on someone new they'd either visibly lock up, or they'd start shaking even more violently. He'd grimace every so often when he'd look at someone in particular, but it wasn't until his eyes landed on a certain scientist that his expression truly changed.

His face twisted into a rictus of absolute rage as his eyes bore into the Scientist's own. Where before he'd been fairly calm, now he looked ready to commit cold blooded murder. His eyes, which had been blue, suddenly changed back to that otherworldly purple.

The scientist in question was standing several meters from the door, and a number of his fellows were positioned around him. His uniform was slightly different from theirs however, most likely denoting a higher position. He was clutching a clipboard tightly to his chest, and his face was as pale as freshly driven snow.

And when the impossible man's expression of rage became focused on him an untranslatable noise escaped his throat. He then quite abruptly passed out. Whether it was some outside force that knocked him out, or if he fainted from sheer terror, she didn't know.

However, before his body could even begin to fall, the blonde man was suddenly standing right in front of him.

There was no warning, much like how he'd created his new clothes. One moment he was standing in the center of the room, and the next he simply wasn't. He'd somehow crossed the distance separating himself from his target without moving a single muscle.

 _Teleportation_.

The hand that wasn't gripping that black staff shot out, and his palm slapped loudly onto the unconscious scientist's forehead. He gripped his victim's face and held the body there suspended upright on slack legs.

Then, before the horrified eyes of the science team, in front of the frozen soldiers, and under Shepard's unblinking gaze… _he ripped the man's soul from his body_.

There simply weren't any other words to describe it. There, grasped tightly in the man's hand, was a wriggling, ephemeral specter. It was translucent and topped with what could only be described as a face twisted in agony. The body itself dropped to the floor with a dull thud, and the scientist's skull bounced once.

It _wailed_ , high and haunting, and Shepard knew that she would remember that sound until the end of time. It was a noise that mortal ears were never meant to hear.

Suddenly, everything around her was shaking. She realized the next second that it wasn't everything else that was shaking, but rather _she_ was shaking. Her hands quivered, and her legs quaked. Shepard dimly noted the roaring in her ears as her legs finally gave out under her. She couldn't remain standing and stumbled backwards. Her butt hit the floor, and her legs splayed out in front of her. Her hands ended up in her lap with their palms facing up. However, even while falling her eyes never strayed from the large projection. She didn't look away. She couldn't have even if she'd tried. Now sitting on the cold floor of the Briefing room like a lost child, she could only stare upward completely entranced.

Between one second and the next the… _soul_ …was gone. It was seemingly absorbed into the hand grasping it without a second of delay. She didn't want to think about what that meant. She wanted to bleach her brain of the last five seconds of video too. She wanted to stop seeing, over and over again, how that hand had torn the life out of the scientist's flesh without the slightest hesitation.

The surrounding scientists and soldiers abruptly started howling in terror. Shepard didn't blame them. All at once, the guards seemed to remember that they were armed, and turned their weapons on the nightmare that was now standing among them. The scientists started fleeing, sprinting several steps each as they ran from what was most assuredly an unholy monster.

None of them made it. None of the weapons fired either. All of the people in the room save for the demon in Human flesh suddenly slumped forward. They all fell over, apparently unconscious. Rifles clattered against the metal below, and the scientists who had started sprinting away fell to slide across the floor on their faces.

All was silent.

A few seconds of that eerie quiet passed, and then the monster casually walked away. He headed for the door of the infirmary whilst gingerly stepping around the limbs of the unconscious figures on the floor. Then he ducked through the open doorway and was gone, the jangling of the rings on his staff fading into the distance.

The video abruptly ended. The projection winked out, and Shepard was left there on the floor staring up into darkness.

She sat there for a long time. She didn't say a word, nor did she move from where she'd flopped down onto the floor. From the corner of her eye she could see The Illusive Man standing to the side still watching her. He didn't say a word either, seemingly content to rapidly chain smoke whilst letting her mind piece itself back together again.

She didn't know how much time had passed while she sat there. It could have been five minutes, ten minutes, or even an hour. She had no idea. All she did know was that The Illusive Man had been completely right.

There really were no words that could be said.

Suddenly, The Illusive Man did speak, and if it was possible he sounded even more subdued than before. He'd likely been keeping this event to himself, pouring over every second of video here in his little throne room for hours. Now however, he'd watched another person aside from himself bear witness to the impossible. Watching her reaction had likely been a sledge hammer for him, and had driven home what they'd both just seen.

"He's headed for Omega," he stated lowly, reaching up to pull on his cigarette. The glow lit his face with an orange light, and the lines around his mouth were suddenly pronounced. He looked far older that he was.

She didn't get up from the floor, but she did slowly turn her head to look at him.

How…?

He likely saw the question on her face…or at least saw that particular question on her face. She knew, and he knew as well, that he had no hope of answering any of her other possible questions.

"He commandeered one of the fighters on site, and according to the flight data that's being fed here he's still in transit. His generated flight plan is locked on Omega however."

She stared at him, but didn't really see him. Her mind had latched onto that information with a feeling of absolute doom.

 _Her_ next stop was Omega.

She looked away from him again, and started slowly shaking her head.

 _Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope…_

She was going to turn this god forsaken ship around right this very instant, and head for the Citadel first.

The Illusive Man, perceptive bastard that he was, likely saw the twist of her expression, and knew what she was thinking.

"You have to follow him Shepard."

Those words were incredibly effective. Her mind had been so completely scrambled up until that point that she didn't qualify as coherent. But those words were enough to make her jump to her feet. Her head whipped around to stare at him with an expression so incredulous, he might as well have suggested that she take her ship into dark-space that moment to fight the Reapers single handed.

"…What did you just say?" she positively _hissed._ If he thought for one instant that she was going anywhere near…whatever the _fuck_ that thing was…he was very, _very_ mistaken.

He didn't repeat himself, but he did try for a justification, "Shepard…I don't know what that man is. _We_ have no idea what that man is…but the only word that can be used to describe what he did is superhuman. In fact, I'd go so far to say that what he did in those videos goes _beyond_ superhuman. It goes straight into the realm of the _supernatural_. Up until six and a half hours ago, I did not believe in God. I didn't believe in a higher power of any kind, or in the concept of the soul."

He took several steps toward her, and his face was so earnest whilst simultaneously so lost that she couldn't help but relate.

"That has changed," he stated lowly, and his voice cracked ever so slightly on the last word. She could see something in his eyes then when he said that, something curling in his glowing iris' and tightening around his soul.

It was _fear_.

The Illusive Man was desperately trying to hide it, but he was afraid. Terrified even.

He was afraid that the existence of that man proved the existence of a higher power.

Suddenly, there was a very distinct possibility that the darkness of nonexistence was not what awaited him when he died, but rather…someone or something that would hold him _accountable_ …and he was very frightened.

"You _must_ follow him."

Shepard didn't give a damn about whatever existential crisis he was having. She made that very clear with her next words.

"I'm not getting within a thousand miles of that thing."

His eyes blazed blue as he took another step forward, and his hand reached up in a clenched fist. His voice rose with emphatic intensity, "You have to Shepard! You saw what he did!"

She had. She really wished she hadn't.

He shook his head then, and that intensity abruptly died like the flame of a candle. He suddenly looked very, _very_ tired, and his clenched fist dropped back to his side, "He put a crater in a mountainside. He rent steel with strength alone. He _teleported_ Shepard. He-," The Illusive Man faltered here, almost choking on his next words, and she knew very well why, "…he…tore a soul from a body."

He paused for emphasis, and then that desperate earnestness was back, "If you want to have any hope of beating the Collectors, or the Reapers after them…you _need_ him on your team."

 _I need him on my side_ , was what went unsaid.

She shook her head. He was speaking complete madness.

"Out of everyone in this Galaxy, the only person who could convince him to fight against the Reapers is you."

She kept right on shaking her head at him. Eventually though she stopped, and when she did, she spoke with a pronounced growl.

"You're trying to send me to my death. If you send me after him, you will be wasting four billion credits."

The Illusive Man didn't answer, instead he turned away and approached his chair. He tapped a few of the holographic keys, and her omni-tool suddenly pinged. She didn't check it however.

"I forwarded the file on the man he killed," The Illusive Man stated evenly, "Take a look."

She didn't want to. She wanted to keep arguing with him. She wanted to tell him to shove the file where the sun didn't shine. She didn't however. After a moment of further indecision, she did check her omni-tool. She opened the file and started to read.

After the first few paragraphs, she had a very clear idea of what type of man that scientist had been.

Her benefactor spoke again, pulling her eyes away from the file to look at him, "He only killed one person in that entire facility Shepard…and while you and I have a very different opinion on what is ethically sound when it comes to the advancement of the Human race, I'm sure we can both agree that out of everyone in that room, he deserved death the most. The rest of the people in that infirmary were relatively innocent. Trained medical professionals and soldiers. He left them untouched save for knocking them out. That is very telling."

She was at a loss for words again, something that had likely happened more times in this call than had happened before throughout her entire life. A tiny voice in the back of her mind that she was trying very hard to ignore silently conceded that point.

The rest of her mind rebelled against that notion however.

Evil though that scientist had been, that didn't change the fact that he'd had his soul ripped out.

She wanted _nothing_ to do with someone who could do that.

"I don't want that thing on my ship."

The Illusive Man nodded like he understood, and as opposed to Chambers earlier, Shepard knew that he really did understand. Any sane person would run when faced with something like this. However, no matter how much he might agree with her sentiment, that didn't change his next words in the slightest.

"I know…" he agreed, commiserating, "But I'll say it again. If you want to beat the Reapers then you _need_ him."

She gnashed her teeth, fighting tooth and nail to not explode. She wanted to scream at him. She wanted to rant and rave in his face for even suggesting it. She desperately wished that this conversation had never happened. That none of this had happened. She'd entered this call with a world that didn't make any sense, but now…?

Now her world was spiraling into absolute madness.

In the end though, she didn't do any of those things. She didn't rant or scream. She didn't tell him that he was insane. She ground her teeth together for several more long seconds, before she finally deflated like a flat tire.

Because deep down she knew that he was right.

Shepard didn't say that however. She didn't give him the satisfaction of agreeing with him. Instead, she did an about face, and walked clear out of the Briefing-room. She walked into the CIC ignoring all of the looks that were no doubt curious about why she'd been talking to their boss for so long. She stepped into the elevator with an incredibly blank face. She stared at the metal walls surrounding her as she rode up to her cabin. The elevator pinged once it reached its destination. She numbly passed the empty fish-tank on her left, and sat with a quiet whoosh of compressed fabric on her new bed.

She sat there for a long time.

* * *

Miranda Lawson, down in her office, had heard about how strangely the Commander had been acting both before and after her talk with The Illusive Man. Normally, she would have respected the Commander's privacy while she was in her cabin. She had yet to actually use any of the hidden cameras positioned in her ceiling after all.

She did this time however. She didn't do it to spy, or because she hoped to gain anything from it. It was more out of concern. Miranda just wanted to make sure her Commander was alright up there in her room. She'd just risen from the dead a little under a week ago. If anyone needed some support, it was her.

So, when she opened the feed to the loft, she was struck with a somewhat strange sight. The Commander was sitting on her bed, staring into the empty space in front of her.

Miranda watched her for a short time, lightly concerned, but then dismissed the odd behavior as the Commander simply thinking deeply. She minimized the feed to a window, and then got back to work, all while keeping an eye on the woman.

That light concern changed to full blown concern as the hours slowly ticked by.

The Commander did not stir. She didn't close her eyes either. She just sat there staring into space.

"… _what in the world did The Illusive Man tell her…?"_

* * *

" **That's the fourth type of poison he's slipped you,"** Kurama stated with rumbling mirth.

Naruto Uzumaki grinned around the lip of the _ginormous_ glass he was drinking from. He took a good, long pull of his fourth drink, something called ryncol. The new memories he'd gained from that scientist, a right evil bastard that could've probably given Orochimaru a run for his money, told him that the drink could only be enjoyed, or survived, by a Krogan. He didn't take his eyes off the Batarian bartender standing in front of him while he swallowed a huge gulp.

The four-eyed alien looked about ready to have an apoplectic seizure.

" _Heh-heh…I know. He's trying really hard isn't he?"_ he replied with just as much mirth.

" **You gonna kill him?"** Matatabi questioned lightly, and Naruto could easily envision the giant neko smiling while watching what was happening, her twin tails lazily swaying in the air.

" _Of course,"_ he answered easily, and a chorus of chuckles reverberated in his head.

Around him, a large number of the patrons of the nightclub he was in were busy staring at him. Their eyes continuously bounced between the large, empty glasses on the bar in front of him, to the near empty one grasped in his hand, and then to his unaffected face.

" **This never gets old!"** Son Goku exclaimed, and he laughed long and loud while thumping his four tails for emphasis.

It really didn't, Naruto found himself agreeing. He'd always been, and always would be, a prankster at heart. Marriage hadn't driven it from his heart, and neither had fatherhood. His tenure as the Nanadaime Hokage hadn't been able to change it, and his retirement hadn't either.

And the Batarian standing in front of him, with four eyes open so wide they looked ready to pop from his large skull, definitely deserved a good pranking. Along with a kunai to the face.

On that note he tipped his glass back to finish his drink, chugging the last couple inches for that extra fuckery factor. He sighed explosively with satisfaction and slammed the glass down on the counter. The Batarian nearly jumped out of his skin. He smiled at the alien then, his mouth stretching so wide that his eyes closed to bare squints. His sharpened canines were on full display, and he nearly chuckled when the alien took a half step back in confusion.

"Thanks for the drinks friend!" he exclaimed, and he slapped several credits down on the counter next to his empty glasses, "I'll just be heading out then, but don't worry! I'll be sure to be back for more of that strong stuff! They were some great recommendations!"

He then grabbed his shakujo and began turning away. From the corner of his eye, he could see the minute twitches on the alien's face, and he saw the instant the furious Batarian made up his mind. He could feel the killing intent in the air as the alien's hands went beneath the bar. He could sense the darkness, the taint of a murderer curled around his heart, and he knew without a shadow of a doubt that the Batarian fully intended to shoot him in the back before booking it.

He finished turning, still grinning broadly, took two steps, and then lazily flung a kunai over his shoulder.

He walked out of the bar and stepped into the alleyway adjoined to it. He rolled his shoulders and stretched, but he didn't pay a single thought for the cries echoing inside the pulsing club he'd just left. A few customers streamed out around him trying to get away from the scene of the Batarian bartender pinned to the wall that'd stood behind him, a kunai holding his dead body up by the throat like a trapped insect.

" _This is a pretty big place, yeah?"_ he stated more than questioned in his mind, and he stuffed one of his hands into the pocket of his black, shinobi pants, _"Lots of species and cultures all mashed together."_

"… **Yes?"** Kurama replied with the barest hint of uncertainty, no doubt wondering what he was thinking.

Naruto grinned, broad and full of teeth.

" _Heh-heh, you know what that means don't you?"_

A beat of time passed, and then a chorus of groans echoed in his head, a far cry from the chuckles he'd heard earlier. Oh yes, all nine of them knew what that meant. None of them gave him the satisfaction of replying to his implication however.

He started strolling down the alleyway, long white cloak billowing behind him, and that foxy grin never left his face. He answered his own question since his partners apparently weren't willing to share in his excitement.

"That means RAMEN!" he cried out loud with overwhelming exuberance, and a few of the urchins squatting in the alley gave him funny looks as he passed.

Kurama heaved a long, drawn-out sigh, sounding for all the world like an indulgent parent dealing with an overbearing child, **"…Of course it does."**

* * *

 **Author's note: Hey, thanks for checking out this new story of mine. This is a plot bunny that's been bouncing around in my head for a good long time, and it finally overwhelmed me. I've read a good number of Naruto fics, but I've always found it hard to find a truly good crossover that captures the essence of an overpowered Naruto. As you can tell, my Naruto is very, very similar to the one in the manga, but with a number of differences too. The reason for those differences will be explained over time.**

 **I will be honest here. The premise for the story has always floated around in my head, but I don't really know what I'm going to do with it in the long run. I know it's bad to do it this way, but I don't have a plan for this fic. I've got a bunch of vignettes in my head for cool things that will happen. Other than that though, I don't have a plan. It's a true case of what pops into my brain being put to paper. Wish me luck I suppose.**

 **If you've read my Bleach fic, and are here to investigate, then I'll be honest with you too. I just don't know. My passion for Bleach has died down significantly. I still love it, and it will always hold a special place in my heart. It's been several years since I started that story however, and my passions and interests have definitely shifted. I was really depressed then too, and that depression shaped the Ichigo of that story. Times change though. I'm in my twenties now too rather than a teen filled with overwhelming levels of pathetic angst. Whose to say what I'll do in the end? Maybe writing this story will rekindle that writing fire I once had, and I might randomly find myself working on that old 17th chapter again.**

 **Anyway. If you made it this far, thanks for reading my friend. I hope you enjoyed it. Please leave a review if you did enjoy...or if you didn't. I'm relatively cool with criticism too. I'll see you next time!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything from Mass Effect series. I do not own anything from the Naruto series.**

* * *

Warnings: AU, Dimension Travel, Graphic Violence, Strong Language

* * *

Chapter Two: Am I Your Chosen One?

* * *

Shepard's shoulders were drawn in tight against her chest as she marched down a dimly lit back alley. The heavy pulse of Lower Afterlife pounded in her ears alongside her heartbeat. She was very tense. Omega was a dangerous enough place on its own for her to be wary. The bowels of the lawless station bore witness to its own unique brand of horrible deeds. Dark and twisted crimes that would never see the light of day.

However, she wasn't thinking about any of that. She kept thinking that something _far_ more dangerous than any slaver or serial killer was on this station with them. Something that simply defied classification.

She didn't know where he was, and she didn't know _what_ he was. She just knew that he was there, and that she _really_ didn't want to find him.

Miranda and Jacob walked behind her, looking far more at ease than she felt. Zaeed was bringing up the rear, and a lot of people gave him a wide berth as they passed. They didn't know what was out there, and unless her unholy luck managed to strike, it would stay that way. Being lucky did not always ensure that the luck you gained was of the _good_ variety. A lot of luck went into keeping her alive on Elysium, but that didn't change how her luck had landed her smack in the middle of it to begin with. A lot of luck had brought her back to life again, but that didn't change how her ship had been torn to shreds around her.

She'd already taken care of a few of her objectives on the station, but she had a couple more to go. There was still _plenty_ of time for everything to start exploding around her ears.

Jane had thankfully managed to secure both the mercenary Zaeed Masani and Doctor Mordin Solus for the team. The first had been easy, but the second was not. She'd had to fight through a district to help cure a massive, cross-species plague, but the two Cerberus operatives behind her were skilled. Zaeed had done his fair share as well. The mission was accomplished with only marginal difficulty. Though…her desperate need to get the _hell_ off of Omega may have also had something to do with the speed with which they tore through the Vorcha.

The Doctor left the clinic to his rescued apprentice, and he'd immediately launched into his work upon seeing the Normandy's lab. It was hard to tell at the time, what with how fast the Salarian spoke in general, but he'd seemed very excited with his new setup.

Now, she was back on the station and heading for one of the markets. Once finished checking the various stalls they'd head for the main entrance of Afterlife. A Blue-Suns mercenary shuttle waited for them there. Rescuing Archangel was her final step, and then she'd finally be able to leave this cesspool behind. So long as she didn't somehow run into _him_ she would have the perfect excuse for not recruiting him. It was a big station. What were the odds?

Her gut failed to unclench even slightly at that thought. She _knew_ how her luck worked.

Both Miranda and Jacob did in fact _look_ at ease, but they really weren't. They were both trying very hard to stay relaxed. Even though the Commander wouldn't say anything, they had both been able to sense Shepard's apprehension. _Something_ was wrong, and they had no idea what. Their eyes darted occasionally between the shadows around them and their leader's back. Their hands did not stray far from their sidearms. Zaeed was the only one among them who was actually as relaxed as he appeared. However, he was also the only one of them who constantly walked around with his rifle drawn.

Abruptly, the markets opened up before them, and Shepard's gut loosened ever so slightly upon entering a better lit space. The markets were a bit more open when compared to the dark alleyway. She hadn't been able to shake the notion that there'd be no way to get out of arm's reach in there. Her brain then decided to helpfully remind her that she really couldn't take comfort in the more open space because the bastard could _teleport_.

She led her three followers forward amongst the stalls. Her eyes panned across the markets, cautiously scanning for any heads of messy blonde hair, and she immediately noted a small, multi-species crowd gathered around on open-air restaurant.

When her eyes found the center of the crowd she abruptly froze mid-stride.

Her eyes got really big, and her pounding heart skittered as it missed several beats. One hand clenched into a suddenly shaking fist, and her other hand fell to her sidearm.

She didn't draw it however. She knew it would be completely useless, just like her godforsaken luck.

* * *

Omega was the first place he decided to explore. The images it evoked within his mind were simply too incredible to resist. It wasn't the _first_ space station he'd ever visited, but he'd known it would have the most _character_. The Citadel had been closer of course, being a shorter pair of relay jumps away rather than around the Galactic core, but he didn't think heading straight for the seat of the Galactic Government was a good idea. He didn't fancy being put on the watch lists just yet.

He didn't even entertain the idea that it wouldn't eventually happen at some point. He knew himself and his tendencies. Anonymity was nice while it lasted however.

When he'd first arrived, he did what came naturally and headed straight for the liveliest part of the station. He generally tried to reign in his sensory capabilities as far as he could wherever he went. Even so, he was still perfectly capable of sensing every single being on the station down to the tiniest microscopic life form. He could Shunshin anywhere he wanted to go, but he refrained from that. It was much better to enjoy the sights along the way. His somewhat strange choice of clothing, and even stranger staff, drew a number of speculative looks as he passed.

The club known as Afterlife rested near the center of the station, and when he first entered he'd been able to sense how significant it was. He'd headed to the lower section of the club, but even so he could still sense Aria lounging on her luxurious sofa. He could taste her malice wrapped ego in the air, and he'd immediately considered pranking the shit out of her. In the end, he just settled for enjoying his drinks. The poison had given them that extra special kick after all.

Then, he did the next thing that came naturally, and he searched high and low for a nice bowl of Ramen while doing a bit of shopping.

What he ended up finding wasn't Ramen.

They were spicy noodles alright, but it definitely wasn't Ramen.

In the end, that still failed to stop him from demolishing several large stacks of bowls, or from drawing in a small crowd of incredulous onlookers. They stood around him, about a dozen would-be customers, and they openly gawked at the sheer amount of food he was devouring. The handful of cooks working the food stall were flying around at speed desperately trying to keep up with the depth of their single customer's voracity. The owner of the little joint had long since broken out in a cold sweat. He was starting to run out of clean bowls.

" **You've always been a disgusting Human,"** Kurama accused with open revulsion lining his tone.

" _Don't you try and ruin this for me!"_ Naruto positively screeched back, _"The last place we ended up hadn't even invented noodles yet!"_

" **Is that why you were so quick to flee?"** Chomei immediately teased. Naruto almost puffed up with indignation at the dig, but the eight tails was quick to deflate him.

" **So quick that you ended up opening the space-time portal in the middle of outer space, rather than on a planet?"** Gyuki tacked on with a laugh, and the Juubi Jinchuriki flushed a deep red from embarrassment.

Naruto didn't fire back at the nine Bijuu as he normally would have when they took turns teasing him. He knew that any excuse he tried to come up with would just dig himself deeper into that embarrassing hole. It was best to just ignore them.

He didn't have a good defense after all.

Naruto could do a _lot_ of things. He could fly under his own power, and he could touch the depths of another's soul. He could bend the elements to his will. If he really pushed himself, he could probably rain down enough concentrated hellfire that whatever continent he happened to be standing on would sink.

He still needed oxygen to breathe however.

As such, Naruto didn't like space. It was troublesome. He _could_ navigate the void between the stars under his own power if he so desired, but he sure as hell didn't desire that. First and foremost, it was annoying. He had to pump wind chakra constantly while out there. The majority of the oxygen would be ripped away from him while blasting through the void anyway. Secondly, flying around in that void was _very_ boring. Space was space. There was nothing there. He much preferred to Shunshin between planets, or, if he'd been there before, use his own Hiraishin. His sensory abilities were more than capable of reaching out into the cosmos to guide him. He could bounce from system to system on his way to any destination with ease.

He didn't even _need_ to travel through space either. The day that Sasuke had been lying on his death-bed and suddenly decided to bequeath the Yin to him _(without any warning whatsoever he might add),_ had been the day that an entire can of space-time fuckery had been opened up for him. Amenotejikara was absurdly useful, and Sasuke's space-time portal was his _only_ method of traveling between dimensions.

So, when he'd opened a portal to an inhabited dimension, and then proceeded to leap through without really looking, he was more than a little chagrined to find that he very abruptly _couldn't_ breathe.

Naruto hadn't wasted any time putzing around out there in space. He'd immediately used telekinesis to blast himself toward the nearest planet with advanced life. Without friction to hamper him he tore through the void at a speed beyond any means of detection. Then he grew even _more_ chagrined as his clothes rapidly burnt off while entering the icy planet's atmosphere.

Finally, just to add insult to injury, he completely _failed_ to stick any kind of landing. Instead, he rammed his face into several million tons of rock. He hadn't managed to be that clumsy since his teenage years. He was willing to admit it. It had been a bit of a train wreck from start to finish.

He even managed to top it all off by flashing a crowded room.

It wasn't one of his proudest moments, and the Bijuu weren't going to let him live it down for some time.

Naruto's thoughts on that embarrassing matter were abruptly interrupted. His emotion sensing had been feeling the waves of disbelief aimed at him for some time, and he'd fully expected that. He'd always had a big appetite and becoming the Juubi Jinchuriki had done nothing to change it. However, what he hadn't been expecting, was a massive spike of fear.

Someone standing several meters behind him had quite suddenly descended into sharp terror.

That terror was directed straight at his back.

His mouth momentarily stopped devouring the noodles he held aloft, and he quirked a confused eyebrow.

Someone was deathly afraid of him because of his _appetite_?

" **Do not act so surprised,"** Kurama stated with a rumbling chuckle, **"It was about time you traumatized someone. She's likely finds you as revolting as I do."**

Naruto ignored his old friend's insults. In their advancing age, half the things they said to each other were well-meaning insults. Instead, he removed the bowl from his face, and slowly turned his head to look into the eyes of the woman currently staring a hole into his back.

His eyebrow quirked even higher when he noted that he'd definitely never seen her before. He hadn't even been here for a full day yet. Certainly not long enough to warrant the level of fear he could feel wafting off her frame. A fear that was steadily rising to new heights as he looked at her. He hadn't even really _done_ anything in this dimension yet. He'd killed like _two_ people before going shopping. That was _it_ , and _both_ of them had plans to kill him. One, he'd discovered, had been planning on dissecting him like countless others, whilst the other had been actively poisoning people.

He raised a hand and waved it weakly in greeting.

With perfect clarity, he watched the redhead physically startle and then pale even further. He noted that she'd be beautiful if her expression wasn't so transfixed. He also noted the very unique wounds on her face with a hint of curiosity.

The fear he was sensing kept skyrocketing for some inexplicable reason. In the end, he turned back to face the bar and ignored her. Once upon a time, he might have charged up to her with an inquisitive greeting, but not anymore. He knew that she wouldn't calm down if he actually approached her. She'd probably cause a very big scene with her screaming.

So, he picked up his bowl again, and started finishing off his food. He was almost done when the woman behind him quite abruptly managed to wrangle her fear under control. It was crushed by a will forged from steel and eventually blew out like a candle. He couldn't stop himself from feeling somewhat impressed by that. He'd met a lot of trained shinobi in his time who weren't nearly as capable at controlling their fear once it managed to overwhelm them.

He felt even more impressed when she started approaching his still turned back. He still didn't know what he'd done exactly, but she'd seemed to have gotten over it if she was willing to come talk to him.

He put his bowl down again, and once she stood directly behind him he swiveled his stool around to face her with an easy smile.

"Can I help you?" he questioned curiously, with his voice intentionally light.

He briefly glanced at the three people following behind her. Both the dark-skinned man and the absolute bombshell of a woman, one that would have probably had his old mentor Jiraiya frothing at the mouth, looked confused to be standing there. However, the scarred man standing apart from them looked completely indifferent. Naruto's eyes turned back to the beautiful redhead's face. She wasn't showing any of the fear she'd been feeling earlier. Her jaw was set, and her stance looked ready for a fight. Her expression was incredibly intense, especially with those glowing cuts along her jaw. Her green eyes bore into his cerulean without blinking.

"Yes," she stated without an ounce of hesitation, "My name is Commander Shepard, and I need your help saving the Galaxy."

His eyes, which up until that point had been crinkled in a kind smile, suddenly grew very big.

 _Oh-hoh~hoh~_

A beat of silence passed as the attention of all nine Bijuu abruptly landed on the woman. The eldest of the nine ended up being the one to voice what they were all thinking.

" **Well…"** Kurama murmured, sounding just the tiniest bit stunned, **"That's not something you hear every day."**

* * *

Shepard wasn't sure what she'd expected.

However, she definitely hadn't expected him to suddenly notice her. He'd had his back turned after all, and they'd never met before. But as soon as she'd realized it was him, and the resulting fear had set in, he'd turned and looked directly into her eyes.

She'd jumped slightly before freezing solid. Her face drained of every drop of blood it had.

He'd slowly waved at her.

He then promptly turned back to his food and proceeded to ignore her existence.

She stood there for several seconds stiff with bewilderment.

While alone in her cabin she'd thought about a lot of things. Naturally, one of those things was whether this guy would immediately rip her soul out of her body if they ever happened to meet. He could apparently judge the weight of a person's misdeeds with a single glance. She knew she wasn't a _bad_ _person_ per-se. She always tried to do what was right in her eyes.

However, she had killed a _lot_ of people. She was a soldier. Her body count of intelligent lifeforms grew with every mission. Sure, they hadn't ever been good people; terrorists, slavers, and murderers to name a few types. She'd definitely killed a lot of them though. That Cerberus scientist had killed a lot of people too.

Not to mention that she was supposed to be dead. Necromancy was bad right?

Yet, despite those things, she was still alive. He was content to ignore her and leave her soul exactly where it lay.

She wrestled her rampant fear down under control when she realized this very significant fact. He wasn't going to smite her for her misdeeds, or for being a zombie. This was good.

Gradually, her limbs unfroze, and she relaxed a bit. Perhaps The Illusive Man was right. He was on Omega, and he hadn't started reaping the souls of everyone surrounding him. He hadn't killed her, and he hadn't caused a massacre.

The words of her benefactor chose that moment to cut through her wary thoughts.

" _Out of everyone in this Galaxy, the only person who could convince him to fight against the Reapers is you."_

Shepard grimaced sharply at that reminder.

She _really_ didn't want to talk to him…and yet, at the same time, she suddenly did. The sane part of her brain was desperately telling her to slowly back away, and once she was out of sight, to run for her ship's docking bay.

However, the mad part of her, the one that thought fighting against the Reapers was a _fantastic_ idea, couldn't help but think that he'd be an invaluable asset. His…abilities…were patently absurd. If he wasn't some Demon wrapped in Human flesh that feasted on the souls of the damned then he _could_ be a _powerful_ ally.

She also couldn't ignore that other part of her that suddenly, _desperately_ wanted an explanation for the things he'd done. She couldn't resist that incredibly human part of her that had seen what he was capable of, and wouldn't settle without getting a complete set of answers. A part of her that wanted to string him up by his thumbs right that very instant to interrogate him on _how_ any of it was even _fucking_ _conceivable_.

In the end, that was what did it for her. Shepard squared her shoulders and marched up to him whilst doing her best to keep her hands _away_ from her weapons. She ignored the small crowd that started to disperse, and she came to a stop behind him. He turned to face her again, swiveling his stool with a squeak, and she felt the tip of his robe brush her kneecap. She stared at his youthful face. It was framed by messy locks of blonde hair, and she noted the six incredibly faded scars on his cheeks that were so thin that they were almost invisible. She silently marveled at how _Human_ he appeared.

"Can I help you?" he asked politely.

Another drop of relief settled in her gut. He was capable of being _polite_ too on top of everything else.

"Yes," Shepard immediately responded, and she silently hoped that she managed to maintain this newfound confidence until the very end, "My name is Commander Shepard, and I need your help saving the Galaxy."

She could practically feel Miranda's incredulous gaze boring into the back of her skull, but Shepard didn't pay the two Cerberus operatives or Zaeed any mind. The person in front of her necessitated _all_ of her attention, and she didn't want to risk glancing away from his face for even a moment.

She watched his eyes grow subtly wider at her request. His cerulean eyes stared right back into hers for a few moments with something very close to surprise.

Then he very suddenly burst out laughing.

He rocked back on his little bar stool as he guffawed. He wrapped his arms around his gut as it heaved with mirth. Everyone in the market could hear him over the din, and more than a few turned to shoot him looks of annoyance.

The last dregs of Shepard's apprehension drained out of her as she was suddenly more than a little annoyed. Maybe he wasn't all that polite after all. She certainly hadn't said anything that was funny.

He waved his hand placatingly as he tried to stave off his laughs, and he leaned forward when they finally calmed to short chuckles.

"I'm sorry," the blonde sheepishly apologized, and he reached up to scratch the back of his head for a moment, "It's just, out of all the things I expected you to say, that wasn't one of them. It's been a long time."

Before she could even begin puzzling over those words he abruptly rose from his seat, and she had to crane her neck back slightly to look him in the eyes. He was a good several inches taller than her, and it made the hair on the back of her neck stand on end. Even with that suddenly excited grin that stretched across his face, or maybe because of it, he was suddenly a _hell_ of a lot more intimidating. His blue eyes seemed to almost catch fire with how intense they became.

"Now… _please_ tell me you're serious, because I've been needing something to do for a while now. If you're getting me all excited just to pitch me some scam line involving my bank information, I'm gonna be really disappointed."

A moment passed, a beat of incredulity, and then Miranda finally spoke up sounding _very_ indignant, "Commander, who is this suppo-"

Shepard's head whipped around to face Miranda, and the woman immediately halted her sentence at the look she shot her. Jane didn't know where they stood with this guy. She couldn't predict what he'd do in any way, shape, or form. Sure, he might have turned out to be _less_ polite than she'd originally thought, but she still wasn't going to let Miranda's attitude do _anything_ to set him off.

She turned back to face the blonde as soon as she was sure that Miranda got the message. Her wide eyes said that she had.

"I'm very serious," she assured him, trying to sound as sincere as possible, "I'm recruiting a team to save the world. A race of gigantic, sentient starships called the Reapers are planning on invading the galaxy to wipe out all intelligent forms of life. I need the absolute best if we're going to defeat them. I need _you_ on my team."

The blonde's grin stretched to truly epic proportions as she spoke. His sharpened canines reflected the red lights hanging above his head, and his eyes practically danced with anticipation. He lifted both arms to his chest to swiftly slam his fist into a waiting palm. The resounding clap of flesh hitting flesh was far louder than she'd expected it to be.

"Let's do it!"

Her thoughts completely derailed at his rather abrupt announcement. Whatever words she'd had lined up next to try and convince him to join her left her lungs with a whoosh of exhaled air.

A moment of incredulity passed between the two Cerberus operatives. Zaeed was pretty unconcerned, but Miranda and Jacob had been very confused from the moment the Commander had walked over and tried to recruit this random blonde guy off the street. He wasn't even wearing any armor, and instead wore a high collared orange shirt with black stripes under an equally high collared white coat. He didn't appear to have any weapons on his person either. Judging by the conversation, the two of them didn't even appear to _know_ each other.

They were very lost.

Shepard was equally as lost.

"Just like that?" she found herself questioning before she could stop herself. She was _very_ relieved when he didn't take offense, and simply gave her a happy nod in return. He spun away from her to snatch his odd staff away from where it was leaning against the bar, and the glow of an omni-tool lit up around his arm as he paid for his meal. The restaurant's owner visibly slumped with relief.

When he turned back to her, that explosive grin of his had lost a little of its excitement, but it had gained deviousness in return.

"Oh yes, just like that," he stated with a tone of complete certainty, "This sounds right up my alley. Saving the world from certain destruction? Definitely my thing. However…"

Here he paused, and he suddenly leaned forward against his pitch-black staff. He peered down into her eyes with a questioning gaze. It was a challenging tone that came out of his mouth next.

"I'm not too sure that _you're_ sure on this. Do you really want _me_ on your team Shepard-san?"

" _Are you sure you can handle having me on the team?"_ Was the implication left hanging in the air.

He was right to question her, because she was asking herself that too. She could handle giant-metal cuttlefish AI hiding out in dark space. Those were still within the realm of absolutely-horrifying-but-still-plausible.

This still unnamed blonde man was not within that realm.

In the end though, Shepard squared her shoulders in the face of that adversity, just like she'd always done. She'd risen from the dead less than a week ago. If she could get a handle on _that_ in so short a timeframe, then she could learn to deal with other impossible shit too.

She nodded sharply, and the uncertainty fled from her just like her fear had earlier. Her steel-forged will would accept nothing less.

"Yes. I'm certain."

All at once, the bright smile was back on his face, and his back straightened with one hand still on his staff.

"Very well."

Then he presented his fist to her with the clenched palm facing down.

She stood there for a few seconds in genuine confusion.

 _Was he seriously…?_

He didn't lower his fist, and his expression didn't change even as the seconds ticked by.

Shepard slowly raised her armored fist. Upon seeing that his smiling face hadn't shifted in the slightest, she lightly bumped her fist against his. She looked down at their fists for a bare second when they connected. Thus, she missed the moment a nearly imperceptible change took place in his eyes. All she knew was that his eyes held a lot more warmth when she looked back up. There was a sense of approval that hadn't quite been there before, and she couldn't help but feel a little more at ease.

The blonde man bowed ever so slightly in her direction, a very subtle showing of respect.

"My name is Uzumaki Naruto, and I will fight by your side Shepard-san."

The ball of anxiety that Shepard hadn't realized was still resting in her stomach finally unclenched all the way. Her muscles relaxed, and she felt like a thousand pounds had just been lifted from her shoulders. She smiled for what felt like the first time since she'd risen from the dead. It wasn't broad or joyous, and it made the wounds along her jawline ache. It was a tired smile that spoke of genuine relief.

"Thank you…we're lucky to have you on the team."

She really, _truly_ meant that. She counted and thanked every single one of her lucky stars that he wasn't numbered amongst her enemies.

He tapped his staff once against the floor, and the rings fixed at its top jangled. He then stood to one side and waved his free hand in a vague gesture towards the markets. His bright smile was both supportive and encouraging.

"Lead on then Commander. I've got your back."

* * *

"AHHHHHHHHH THIS IS WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT!" Shukaku cried amidst his gleeful cackles, "FINALLY SOMETHING WORTHY OF OUR TALENTS!"

That cry was a sentiment the Tailed Beasts shared.

It had been a _long_ time since any of them had done anything of significance, and that included Naruto himself. His retirement had certainly been fun thus far, but nothing truly _monumental_ had come his way until this very moment.

The nine definitely enjoyed relaxing within Naruto's soul of course. They didn't generally like being disturbed, even by their own siblings at times, and having their own tailored mindscapes to laze around in was lovely. They were perfectly content to sit back in their front row seats, and watch as Naruto got into absurd situation after absurd situation.

It was far more entertaining to heckle him as he trapezed through random inhabited dimensions. Mortals couldn't bother them that way.

However, every once in a while, a genuine challenge was more than welcome. They all liked to flex their power a little bit…or a _lot_ in some of their cases.

These Reapers definitely sounded like a challenge. Judging by the sheer weight resting on the young Commander's shoulders then the threat was a dire one. Naruto had grown into a level-headed leader as he'd aged, but he'd still never been one to back down from any kind of challenge.

Besides, the woman had a good heart. Naruto hadn't intruded on her memories, he didn't need to do that to _understand_ her after all. He knew that the threat was a real one, and that this woman desperately needed back-up. He was more than a little down with being that back-up. He hadn't used even _one_ basic Rasenshuriken in a long time. He hadn't gone into any of the Bijuu modes either.

This certainly sounded like a grand enough adventure to be worthy of them.

Naruto was currently smiling as he listened to his nine tenants chat excitedly within his soul. He was leaning back against the railing outside of Afterlife with his arms crossed over his chest. His senses were closely tracking a sky-car that flew down through several of the districts. The Batarian pilot hadn't been willing to let him on board. He was apparently unarmored and unarmed, and thus a complete moron as far as the pilot was concerned. He'd laughed at the Commander's uncertain expression and assured her that he'd be following right behind them.

The sky-car finally reached its destination, and Naruto abruptly vanished. A number of the random passerby that'd been near him startled badly. He dropped out of his Shunshin a moment later. He was hidden within the shadow of an alley a few meters from the sky-car.

He stepped into the light with a smile on his face once the pilot took off again. He thoroughly enjoyed the stunned expressions of the three operatives behind the Commander. However, he couldn't help but feel a sliver of curiosity when Shepard wasn't nearly as surprised. She only raised an eyebrow for a few moments before briefly shaking her head. If he'd been 99% certain before, then he was 100% certain now. She'd apparently seen him use some of his abilities already, even though he'd only just arrived. She must have access to _quite_ the information network for that to be the case. She likely had ties to the black-ops organization that had first discovered him.

Shepard beckoned him over to join them. She cast a critical eye around them once he stood before the squad.

"We're here to rescue a Turian vigilante going by the name Archangel. These mercenaries have him under siege. We need to get into his safehouse, recruit him, and then get him back out alive. I don't know what you're capable of. Tell me what you can do to accomplish this mission."

He turned away from her, and his eyes scanned over the large number of barricades lining the length of the boulevard. It was a straight shot that forced intruders to cross a single bridge. At the far end of the street he could sense a lone Turian armed with a sniper-rifle. He was bunkered down behind solid cover, and anyone who strayed into his sight died long before they could even reach the first floor of his building. However, there was a small squad that had infiltrated and hidden themselves within the bottom floor.

Naruto smiled wryly as he turned back to her, and then he shook his head.

"We'll be standing here a long time if I tried to make a list. I'm just going to follow your lead Shepard-san. I'll have your back when you need it. When the fighting starts I want to see what you can do. I'll be right there with you."

Shepard's eyebrow ticked upward, "You're actually willing to follow my orders Mr. Uzumaki?"

There was open caution in her tone. She was wary of his answer, likely unsure whether such a possibility even existed. She needn't be. This was _her_ mission. This was _her_ dimension. It was _her_ world's fate that hung in the balance. He was just along for the ride. She _definitely_ needed to be the one in charge.

He didn't say any of that however, he just nodded his head, "So long as they are the right orders."

Shepard looked ready to rise to that challenge. He could tell that she was confident in her ability to lead, and her earlier apprehension was a distant memory. She reached up to release her M-96 Mattock into her waiting hands and nodded sharply back at him.

"They will be."

He smiled brightly, "I'll fight by your side so long as they are Commander, and please, call me Naruto." The smile on his face turned a little bit devious, "So long as you've got me on your team, your mission can't fail."

On that note, he released his staff. It fell for a bare moment before dissipating into thin air. He shrugged off his white overcoat the next instant, and it too dissipated without fanfare. Shepard completely schooled her reaction, but the three operatives were left a little stunned. He was left in that high collared orange shirt of his. Its sleeves were now visible, and black rings lined the cuffs as well as the hem. He wore a pair of loose black pants, and opened toed shoes adorned his feet.

He stretched out his hands to loudly pop his fingers joints, and Shepard was suddenly able to spy a pair of symbols emblazoned on the flesh of his palms. A black crescent moon and a white sun rested there in his separate hands.

"I don't think these guys will be too happy if I go traipsing through their combat zone," he abruptly stated while casting another furtive glance down the boulevard.

It was true. He looked like a civilian. He had no weapons. He was wearing _open toed shoes_. He didn't look like he belonged anywhere near this siege.

The devious smile was back the next instant, and his hands clasped together in a symbol that only he knew to be the tiger sign, "I'll stay unseen until the fighting starts. But don't worry Commander, I'll be right there with you every step of the way."

He channeled his chakra for the Hiding with Camouflage Jutsu, and then vanished without a trace. There was no pulse of electricity that came with powering an optical camouflage unit, or any of the accompanying shimmer. He was simply gone.

Shepard reached up to rub the front of her forehead at that act. The three operatives behind her stared openly gob smacked at the place he'd once been standing.

* * *

The quartet wound their way through the different side corridors with Shepard at the lead. Zaeed carried on with what Shepard could only assume was his usual aplomb. Miranda and Jacob however kept casting furtive looks around, likely trying to spy their newest recruit. Miranda in particular kept sending her looks, looks that she could only translate as signs of an impending interrogation. Her new second-in-command apparently didn't enjoy being left in the dark at _all_.

They made a few stops for information as they headed for the frontline, and Naruto didn't resurface. It wasn't until they were finally crossing the bridge, and they'd started firing their weapons at the mercenaries crossing ahead of them, that he finally reappeared.

He made quite the entrance too.

Naruto abruptly materialized while sailing through the air above their heads, shouting an exuberant battle-cry, and he looked prepared to deliver a punishing flying kick. They had a front row seat to watch as his foot planted itself in the nearest mercenary's flank. The freelancer folded like a house of cards, and his armored body made a sizable _dent_ in the metal bridge beneath him. The entire structure vibrated with the force of that kick. It was a mercy that the poor bastard died near instantaneously, but that didn't stop his body from being turned into a broken mess on the ground.

The orange-clad fighter rebounded off of his first opponent's collapsed body, and he sailed through the air again to plant a foot in another mercenary's face. The new victim's knees gave out underneath him, and he crashed to the floor in a boneless heap. Naruto bounced high once more, and executed a bizarre acrobatic movement. His hands never stopped as he twisted through the air whilst completely upside down, and he even used them to propel himself along by pushing off of random heads. They darted here and there amongst the wave of mercenaries, and every strike either killed someone outright or knocked someone cold. Eventually, he spun like a cat, and his feet hit the floor in a picture perfect landing. He then flew into a complicated form of martial arts, and proceeded to decimate the enemies that were left before them on the bridge.

The entire maneuver only took a sparse handful of seconds, and in that time the squad of four nearly ground to a halt. Only battle-hardened instincts kept them from stopping in the middle of that bridge to watch the spectacle. As it was, Zaeed still spat an impressed curse while firing his rifle. Shepard couldn't stop herself from feeling a little awed as well. She might know a little of what he was _truly_ capable of, and therefore shouldn't really be surprised. However, witnessing what appeared to be an unarmored lunatic laying into a crowd of fully kitted mercenaries with nothing but his bare fists and feet was still a very jarring sight.

They made it across the bridge with the orange clad martial-artist leading the way. Jane couldn't help but notice that a number of the mercenaries he'd taken down were still alive. They were obviously unconscious, with grievous wounds keeping them there, but they were much better off than the mercenaries that were very clearly dead. She didn't know why, but Naruto was intentionally leaving some alive while completely pulverizing others.

Shepard found herself trusting the strange new recruit to maintain their forward momentum, and she turned to fire back the way they came. She suppressed any of the mercenaries that tried jumping the barricade to revive the wave. When the bridge was clear and she turned back, she found herself momentarily struck speechless at the sight before her. If she'd turned any later she would have missed it, but she managed to rotate back just in time to witness Naruto bounce off of the _ceiling_ above their heads. He jumped from there to the _wall_ , shaking it enough to knock dust free with his footfalls, and then he blasted off of that wall with a mighty lunge. His leg swung around to catch the last hiding mercenary in the gut, and the victim let out a keening wail as he sailed through the air. He flew from one end of the room to the other and crashed through the window. Glass shattered as his armored form passed through it, and the wail turned into a high-pitched scream of terror as he fell into the depths of the station.

The lower floor was silent after that. The bridge was still clear as the mercenary bands reeled under another failed assault. Naruto stood alone in the center of the room looking as cool as a cucumber even with several dozen bodies strewn around him. He was breathing evenly, and hadn't even broken a sweat. Zaeed rose from where he'd been in cover, and blew a long deeply impressed whistle at the dented armor and snapped limbs. Jacob looked just as impressed as Zaeed. Miranda kept casting lost glances between where the blonde was standing, and the wall that he'd ricocheted from.

Shepard didn't stay awed for long however. She shook it off a moment later and stormed up the steps to the second floor. She'd have plenty of time to question him on all of his bizarre abilities later, and his impossible skill at hand-to-hand was one she'd be sure to address. For now though, she had a mission to complete.

So, with that in mind, she marched into the top floor with a purpose in her steps. She fully intended to recruit this Archangel, or drag him off of the station by his mandibles if necessary. She'd long since had enough of this station, and if she could just get back to her ship without everything falling apart she'd be happy.

However, those dark and tired thoughts fled her mind the next moment when she abruptly came face to face with a very dear friend.

* * *

When the Eclipse attacked Shepard was forced to ignore the happiness she felt at finding one of her best friends. Falling into the thick of it with Garrus once again at her back was a feeling she'd been desperately needing ever since rising from the dead. Even under a hail of gunfire there was now a sense of _normalcy_ that she'd somehow been missing. Save for Eden Prime, the Turian had been with her for every mission on her hunt for Saren, and having him at her back was something she'd dearly missed.

That sense of normalcy she'd been feeling was firmly obliterated when she started firing down into the onrushing wave of Eclipse. The finger she'd been holding on the trigger suddenly numbed along with her whole body as she spied a whirlwind of orange and yellow descend to tear through the mercenaries.

She watched as Naruto blitzed through the assault force below for a few moments. She witnessed him pulverizing security mechs and armored troops alike, sending their broken bodies flying every direction with precisely timed strikes.

She slowly turned her head to the left.

The blonde bastard was also standing several feet from her looking completely at ease. He was even smiling at her.

She slowly turned her wide green eyes back to the street, where that same carbon copy of the blonde was still tearing through the steadily panicking Eclipse.

' _What the FUCK?!'_ Her mind practically screeched whilst grinding to a halt. She didn't exclaim however. In the end, it was Miranda who was the first to crack upon realizing that there was now _more than one_ Naruto on the battlefield.

"WHAT THE BLOODY HELL?!" the accented voice of the Cerberus operative cried, and the dark-haired beauty stopped firing her submachine gun to bounce incredulous stares between the blonde standing among them, and the blonde down below them. Jacob's own cry followed hers, and he sounded breathless with both confusion and awe.

"How the hell is he doing that?!" the dark skinned man shouted even as he fired shots at the barricades. He wasn't really taking the time to aim, since his eyes kept trying to keep up with the orange force of nature currently tearing up the bridge.

Neither of them received an answer, and Naruto kept standing there with that broad grin on his face.

It was a few moments later that Shepard managed to close her gaping mouth, and then she couldn't stop the question that immediately tumbled from her lips.

"How are you doing that?!"

As opposed to the two operatives, Naruto actually deigned to answer her question. However, the answer she received wasn't nearly as informative as she'd hoped.

"Like this," he replied sounding just a touch smug, and that broad grin of his stretched to even larger proportions. He didn't so much as twitch and yet a cloud of smoke abruptly poofed into existence next to him. When the smoke cleared they were treated to the sight of a _third_ Naruto standing there with an equally broad smile. The two twins tilted their heads ever so _slightly_ in opposing directions, creating a very unsettling doppelganger effect. They looked _exactly_ the same.

A long moment of protracted disbelief passed over the upper floor. The humans in the room couldn't keep their jaws off the ground even if they wanted to, and the lone Turian had been lost from the moment he'd laid eyes on his supposedly dead Commander. Watching some random human appear to _will_ reinforcements of himself into existence was starting to stretch the limits of what he could accept. He'd witnessed a lot of whack shit over the last several dozen hours that he'd been awake, and he was starting to think that he was hallucinating from all the stress.

The new clone suddenly flew into motion, and with a joyous battle cry went sailing over the railing to descend as well. It joined its other twin in tearing through the mercenaries below, and after a few moments, both of the blonde clones were left without standing enemies. They immediately vaulted over the barricade at the end of the bridge, and they rushed down the boulevard to assault the mercenaries hidden in the rooms beyond. The fading sounds of gunfire and screams drifted back across the bridge to the still silent squad.

Naruto was still standing there with that ever-present smile as the room descended into full silence. It stayed that way for a moment longer before he suddenly started frowning. He cast a glance behind him before belting out a warning, and a lot of the bewilderment fled from the room at his next words.

"A squad has set up charges below us, and are about to breach into the basement floor."

As soon as the words left his mouth a massive explosion went off, and they could hear it reverberate from beneath the foundations of the building. The squad felt the vibrations in their bones as the entire structure shook slightly.

"They've blasted through the passages I had sealed," the Turian vigilante turned to inform Commander Shepard as his mind did its best to keep up with the rapidly changing circumstances, "A squad will have to go down there and manually close the shutters. If we don't, they'll pour into the bottom floor, and any advantage we have from that bridge will be lost."

Shepard nodded grimly, and her eyes immediately locked onto the outlandish blonde in the group.

"Naruto, you're with me. You three," she stated while gesturing at Zaeed and the operatives, "Will stay here and watch Garrus' back. Keep a close eye on him. We'll go get those shutters closed."

Miranda took a few steps forward with cautious uncertainty in her stride, "Are you sure that's a good idea Commander? You don't know what you'll find down there."

However, the Cerberus operative cast a wary eye at the blonde man while she said this. It was obvious what Miranda was actually worried about. She not only looked worried, but more than a little confounded too. She also very obviously didn't like being confounded. She was visibly struggling to put together a puzzle, one in which the end product didn't make any sense according to her tailored sensibilities.

Shepard didn't look uncertain anymore. She simply moved past yet _another_ impossible act while adding it to the growing list of questions. She cast a glance at Miranda and nodded reassuringly.

"I'm sure," She turned back to Naruto and gestured toward the hallway with her rifle, "I want you out in front, I'll provide you support at range. Let's get those shutters closed."

The blonde threw her a thumbs up and a cheesy smile, "I'm on it Shepard-san."

He then turned and abruptly vaulted over the railing overlooking the bottom floor. He landed on the edge of the sofa down below without swaying in the slightest. He flipped off of the couch's back in the direction of the exit, and he swiftly cut down the unfortunate set of Vorcha he encountered there before disappearing down the stairs to the basement. The sound of him tearing through more of the Vorcha drifted back up to the upper balcony.

Shepard was left standing there for a moment, before she shook her head with forced aplomb. She brushed past the odd behavior and started heading toward the stairs to join him. As she passed through the door Miranda spoke up once again, drawing her attention. The poor woman was still visibly having a very hard time.

" _Who_ is that man Commander?"

Shepard didn't have an answer to that very important question. She shrugged as she walked away, and admitted as much to the befuddled operative.

"I've got no idea."

She'd get her answers though. It wouldn't be now, but it _would_ happen. She wouldn't settle for anything less.

* * *

Shepard led the way back up to the top floor once they were finished closing the shutters, and it was _she_ who broke out into a dead sprint when they heard the sound of Garm tearing up the top floor. The combined might of her rifle bearing squad-members tore through the Krogan Battlemaster in moments. She was forced to dive into cover soon after however, when a Blue-Suns gunship came screaming into view with its minigun already blazing. Her heart pounded loudly in her ears as the overwhelming amount of fire started to tear through the cover at the front of the room.

Jane's eyes abruptly landed on the blue form that slumped down across the room, and her heart's pounding was suddenly interrupted as her pulse skipped several beats. Ice crawled through her veins at the pools of blue blood staining the apartment floor.

"Garrus!" she heard her own concerned voice cry out without warning.

That ice was suddenly chased from her veins by the racing flames of rage, and she started furiously gunning down the invading Blue-Suns. She'd only _just_ found Garrus again, and something was already threatening to tear his life away. Shepard cast one last wrathful glance at the armored gunship strafing around the building, and pointed at its metal flank.

"Naruto!" she shouted over the roaring gunfire, "Destroy that fucking thing!"

She heard him laugh boisterously at that, and her eyes turned to find his on the other side of the room. He wore a feral grin now, and those six scars she'd noticed earlier suddenly looked far more pronounced. His sharp canines flashed, and he thrust his arm forward to point a single finger at the flying hunk of metal. She could hear the smile in his voice as he loudly answered.

"You got it Commander!"

That finger which he'd been pointing out into the dark night was suddenly lit by a bright glow. It shown a bright blue for a moment before it swiftly grew. Half a second later, an orb a swirling azure energy hung there suspended before the tip of his finger. A moment passed as the four team members who were still conscious gazed upon an attack that looked _distinctly_ different to any form of biotics they'd ever witnessed.

With their eyes firmly fixed upon the swirling orb, they were able to witness what happened next with perfect clarity.

That basketball-sized orb of spinning power shot from his extended fingertip. It flew through the air to collide with the nose of the gunship. An almighty screeching sound ripped through the night air as the two met. Sparks flew for the barest of moments as the spinning orb swiftly chewed through the gunship's armor. The steel folded like wet tissue paper under the orbs onslaught, and between one blink and the next, the orb had breached the metal frame. The glowing ball impacted the pilot inside, tearing through both his armor and his chest cavity. The sphere lasted a single second longer, before it finally detonated with the force of an artillery shell within the chassis of the flying gunship. Metal fragments rained down on the bridge or fell into the depths below it, and Tarak's body was no longer recognizable. His upper half had been turned into a pulpy mass.

The silence that descended this time was far more stricken than the stunned silence from earlier. Zaeed was still crouched behind one of the black sofas, seemingly still unsure of his safety, and he was peering out from his cover to cast wary glances Naruto's way. Miranda and Jacob were both busy staring out at the space in the sky that had, up until very recently, housed an intact gunship.

Shepard didn't pay any of them an ounce of attention. Nor did the sight of that gunship getting blown out of the sky by their blonde teammate cause her to lose track of her priorities. She'd immediately rushed to the downed Turian's side as soon as the metal fragments had started raining down.

That fear from earlier swept through her again at the sight of his completely still form. With the enemy dead, her anger drained from her, leaving her desperately afraid, and with no one left to kill. Her hand tentatively reached out, almost unwilling to touch him and learn of his true fate, but that uncertainty fled from her when he suddenly coughed. His three talons gripped the muzzle of his rifle, and he drew it in close. Relief flooded her at the life in his eyes, but the fear came back again at the sound of his wet breathing.

He was bleeding out, and the blood was pooling into his lungs too. The right side of his face was torn to shreds. She needed to get him out of there _immediately_ if she wanted to keep her dear friend alive.

Just as she started to turn, preparing to bark out sharp orders to her surrounding team, a blur of motion came to a stop beside her. She craned her head back to stare up at the pair of blue eyes above her. Naruto wasn't looking at her however. His cerulean eyes were firmly fixed on her Turian best friend. They took in the mass of wounds covering his downed form, and then his eyes finally fell on her face. He smiled kindly when faced with the fear she felt for her friend, and he squatted beside her to lay his left hand on her shoulder reassuringly.

"Do not worry Shepard-san."

The Uzumaki then swiftly placed his right palm, the one with the sun emblazoned within it, upon the wounded Turian's back.

A few moments passed where Shepard genuinely considered shouting. _Do not worry?_ Garrus was _dying_ on the floor, and Naruto wanted her to chill? She hadn't been able to chill in a week, and until Garrus survived surgery she _wouldn't_ be chilling either.

Those incredulous and highly irritated thoughts were abruptly banished when her Turian friend suddenly groaned there on the floor. His lungs sounded far clearer than they'd been seconds beforehand. If anything, he seemed to be breathing easy all of a sudden. He sat up with strength that he _shouldn't_ have considering the blue blood pooled around him. Then the three talons on one of his hands came up to gingerly touch the right side of his face. His mandibles twitched as her friend released a very tiny gasp.

She took another apprehensive look at that side of his face, the one she'd known as the side that had taken the blast, and then she joined him in gasping.

His face was perfectly fine. There wasn't a _single_ mark there.

She'd _seen_ the bloody mess his right side had become, and remembered instantly fearing that her best friend would end up like her, with his own set of glowing scars. Or worse, that they wouldn't even be able to get him back to the med-bay in time.

 _Now_ , her Turian companion was numbly patting the side of his previously demolished face, seemingly unable to understand how his wounds had vanished. However, Shepard wasn't nearly as lost. Her brain stuttered for a long moment before making the obvious connections, and her head whipped around to stare in open mouthed _wonder_ at the blonde beside her. Naruto had risen from his crouch, and that kind smile of his was still in place.

He suddenly crossed his arms behind his blonde hair, and he leaned back on one heel. His smile turned into a confident smirk, "Well, that's one mission accomplished, yeah Commander?"

Jane could only nod her head in answer, though even that was done on auto-pilot. Her voice simply failed to materialize.

That confident smirk grew imperceptibly when her tongue-tied expression persisted. It was razor sharp as he spoke his next words.

"What's next then Shepard-san?"

* * *

 **Author's Note: Hello again, thanks for making it this far once more.**

 **Here is a brief insight into myself. I've always loved the reactions of the characters in stories like this. Seeing your favorite character _fucking_ with another set of your favorite characters always scratched a very particular itch for me. It's even more fun to write it. I had a lot of fun with this chapter as a result. I hope you had fun too. **

**Now, a quick clarification on my Naruto. As you all can tell by now, he's different, but also not. He's aged I guess you could say. His past is remarkably the same as canon, but with incredibly small differences that only take place in the Boruto era. His powers have aged too, seeming to mature and develop the older he became. There will be a lot of free-form chakra usage as a result.**

 **Finally, a brief word of reassurance. If you happen to receive push notifications on story updates you may see two from my story every once in a while. That is just me going back and correcting slight, grammar-only mistakes in previous chapters. However, do not fear. I will always publish an _actual_ chapter alongside any corrections. I wouldn't tease all of you like that. **

**Now, a final note of honesty. I don't have any kind of an update schedule. For example, I wrote the first 5000 words of this second chapter almost a day after I published the first one. I finished the rest a week later. I couldn't tell you how frequent I will be able to update. It could be a week. It could be a month. Perhaps even more. I just don't know, ya feel?**

 **Anyway, thanks for reading my friend. I hope you enjoyed it, and I hope to see you again next time.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything from Mass Effect series. I do not own anything from the Naruto series.**

* * *

Warnings: AU, Dimension Travel, Graphic Violence, Strong Language

* * *

Chapter Three: Hit the Ground Running

* * *

They managed to get back to the ship somehow. By that point, Garrus was exhausted to the point of collapse. He'd been awake for well over 36 hours, and under a cornered siege for a solid portion of that. Jane had to keep grabbing his hand to stop him from patting his previously shredded face the entire way back to the ship. He almost put his own eye out several times with those talons of his.

When they made it back, Shepard proceeded to dump Naruto in the Starboard Observation room, telling him that he was welcome to claim it as his own. She then immediately fell back, heading for her cabin. The amused look he shot her as she retreated made her flush with embarrassment.

Jane had been very _adamant_ throughout the mission that she'd get answers out of the blonde once they got back. In the end, it didn't work out that way. That desire had been swiftly dashed at the very end of their mission. She could accept a lot of things, and even shrug off impossible events that boggled the average mind.

Jane drew a line at _healing dying people by touching them._

She really needed to go and think about that one for a little while. She needed to give that idea some time to really marinate, or else _who_ _knew_ what she'd start shouting at him. Once she was sufficiently calm, and could _maintain_ that calm, she'd go ask her questions.

She'd paced around her cabin for about half an hour, with her thoughts running in circles, and she still hadn't felt completely calm.

In the end, Miranda came knocking on her door. Jane had immediately assumed that the operative was there to drill her with questions. That turned out to not be the case. The dark-haired woman had simply asked to pour them some drinks and then sat down. She didn't speak again. She simply sat there with her small drink, almost commiserating in a silent way. Her eyes were distant, probably seeing something from the very recent past.

Shepard sipped from her own glass for a few moments, before she quite abruptly started speaking. Miranda hadn't asked a single thing, and yet Jane couldn't help the words that started pouring from her mouth. She didn't know what The Illusive Man had done with the security footage from Firebase White, but she was fairly certain that he'd kept it to himself. That was his way after all. She didn't have a copy even though he'd trusted her enough to show her.

She didn't really care about any of his secrecy. She just wanted to talk about it with someone. She _needed_ to get it out there and have at least one other person understand. Garrus was fast asleep, so Miranda would work as a temporary substitute. She really didn't want to put any of this on Garrus right now either. He'd just lost his entire squad, and she didn't want to dump her burdens on his shoulders.

Jane told Miranda everything she'd seen when The Illusive Man had last called her. From start to finish, she recounted Naruto's actions on Noveria up until his departure to Omega. The Cerberus Operative stayed silent the entire time. Once she finished telling Miranda every detail she could remember, she started listing the abilities she'd seen him display.

"I've seen him survive atmospheric re-entry while completely nude. He's shredded through steel. He-" She paused here to reach up and tiredly rub her forehead before finishing, "He ripped a soul out of someone. He can teleport. He can take down more targets with his bare fists than _we_ can with our rifles. He can blow ships out of the sky with explosive biotics. He can somehow create copies of himself…I have _no idea_ how that could possibly work. That one _really_ doesn't make any sense."

Shepard stopped her slow pacing in front of her still empty fish tank. She turned to look at her current second-in-command. A pair of empty glasses now sat on the table between them. She hadn't ever expected to end up sharing a drink with Miranda, especially since they barely knew each other, and the other woman was Cerberus to the core.

However, witnessing _bizarre_ shit together tends to form a bond.

"And on top of all that, he healed Garrus. One moment the man had half his jaw missing, and the next he was fine. I didn't even _see_ it happen. He…" she trailed off here for a moment and looked down at the skin of her own palms. Her gaze went right through them however, seeing something else entirely. "He just told me not to worry, and then touched him. That was all it took."

The dark-haired woman had long since stopped reclining back into the sofa. She was now leaning forward against her knees, with her hands hanging loosely between them. Her head was slightly bowed, and she was gazing down at the metal floor of the cabin. She shook her head after a few moments, and then turned her eyes toward Jane. She looked genuinely baffled, with her brow scrunched together in consternation. Her mouth worked silently as she tried to think of something to say. Eventually, she did speak, and her voice came out both indignant and bewildered.

"He sounds like some fucking superhero from a cheap action vid. None of those things are possible with modern technology. They can't be done."

The operative looked back at the floor, and she sounded mostly indignant when she continued a few moments later, "No amount of genetic modification could account for even a fraction of that. Hard-light tech isn't nearly advanced enough to produce those clones either, and personal teleportation is a pipedream for the next _millennia_."

Those statements hung in the air, damning with their implications.

Shepard watched her second-in-command think, and she got to see the moment a sudden light began shining in her dark eyes. Miranda abruptly rose from the couch and began rapidly pacing between the desk and armor locker. The heels of her boots clacked against the metal. She rested her chin on one hand with the other arm crossed, looking deep in thought.

Miranda finally came to a stop standing before the armor locker with her arms still crossed. She stared at the glowing holographic interface, and the rapid-fire connections of ideas and thoughts shone clearly in her eyes. Her genius was scrambling to solve a puzzle with half the pieces missing. She suddenly opened her mouth to speak, and she made a vague gesture with the hand that had been beneath her chin. She faltered half-way however, looking suddenly uncertain. She heaved a gutsy exhale instead and reached up to wearily rub her eyes with that hand. With her face hidden, she posed her sudden idea.

"I can't believe I'm actually suggesting this…but could he be a time traveler?"

Shepard blinked, somewhat caught off guard by the sudden hypothesis. She had a moment's time to consider the idea before Miranda began trying to explain herself. She sounded almost embarrassed to be considering the idea in the first place. Her eyes told a different story however. She looked desperate for a logical answer, even if it only existed within a hypothetical theory.

"A single person from the modern era could never hope to create all of that exotic tech, let alone keep their development hidden from the public. He _does_ possess them however, all of them at the same time, _and_ he also appears Human."

Jane couldn't help but see where she was going with her idea. It was a leap, but it did make a bizarre kind of sense - if you squinted. She also noted Miranda's apparent belief that Naruto's feats were the results of advanced technology. Jane herself wasn't so sure. She'd _seen_ the soul torn from another, and she'd never forget it. Miranda hadn't seen the footage, and likely never would.

"Humanity can't do any of those things now, and they certainly couldn't do them half a millennia ago," the operative continued, and yet she still sounded uncertain in her own words. She likely didn't want to accept her own theory. She simply couldn't stomach the outlandish idea her mind had conjured.

"The Illusive Man would have known," she continued, sounding certain in _that_ at least, "I can't think of a reasonable explanation for any of this. There's no-"

The operative paused in the middle of her sentence, a sentence that had been about to dissolve into slight hysterics. Her eyes shifted to look at something past Jane's shoulder. Shepard turned to spy the silent interruption and saw the blue glow of EDI's avatar lighting up her little alcove. Jane opened her mouth to speak, but the AI beat her to it.

"I apologize for interrupting your meeting with Operative Lawson, Commander," The AI began in her crisp female voice, "But I must report that my onboard sensors are currently malfunctioning."

The AI spoke in a tone that neither of the women had ever heard her speak in before. She sounded subtly distressed. Both women swiftly spun to fully face the AI, and Shepard immediately shifted from a bewildered theorist into a straight-backed Commander.

"What seems to be the problem EDI?" She questioned quickly, voice slightly edged with trepidation, "Give me a status report on the failed systems."

A moment of time passed as the AI didn't answer. That moment stretched for a very uncharacteristic amount of time for a super computer. An artificial intelligence of EDI's caliber shouldn't struggle over a status report, but even still, she didn't answer for a span of time.

"There are no currently failing systems," The AI eventually replied, and if she'd sounded subtly distressed before, she was _openly_ distressed now. If it was even possible for an AI to experience anxiety, then EDI was somehow feeling it.

Jane shared a deeply confused look with Miranda. The operative looked just as lost as she felt at that answer. They both stepped a few feet closer to the suspended blue orb.

"What is wrong EDI?" Shepard tried again, enunciating slowly. Worry leaked into her tone as she did.

EDI once again failed to answer promptly. Both women felt their shared worry begin to mount. Whatever the malfunction was, it was apparently _very_ _bad_.

"My onboard sensors are currently malfunctioning."

Shepard floundered at that repeated line. Miranda stepped up to the plate, and her expression was fixed with rising apprehension.

" _Where_ is the malfunction located EDI? What type of malfunction is it?"

EDI answered promptly this time, "I am receiving false readings from my sensors as well as my cameras within the Starboard Observation room."

Shepard stood silent in the wake of that, before slowly reaching up to tiredly rub her face. She heaved an exhausted sigh, "What is Naruto doing EDI?"

"The subject, now designated 'Naruto,' is currently walking across the Starboard Observation room."

Shepard sighed again, "Then what's wrong with your sensors?"

EDI paused here once more, and Shepard silently braced herself.

"There have been twenty-three instances-" the AI stopped for brief a moment before continuing, "-twenty-four instances, of random objects materializing within the Starboard Observation room. I am unable to track their arrival aboard the Normandy."

Jane grimaced before rubbing her face again. She cast a slightly annoyed look in Miranda's direction. She sounded irritated when she spoke, but her ire was not directed at anyone in the room.

"By the way, I forgot to mention. He can apparently create and manipulate matter."

A heavy quiet passed between the trio at that. Miranda stood there at her side, appearing to almost not understand the words that had just passed her lips. She opened her mouth to speak, but then froze. She didn't make a single sound. She just stood there in complete silence, and her wide eyes stared at Shepard's disgruntled face.

EDI remained quiet in her little alcove for a short time as well. However, the AI was the one to finally break the silence.

"Commander, I-…I don't understand."

Jane took a moment to silently marvel that a super computer was actually able to _falter_. She couldn't help but empathize with the poor AI at that. She also couldn't help but think that EDI was going to be seeing a _lot_ of stuff that exceeded her ability to process.

Shepard nodded sympathetically in the projected avatar's direction.

"Welcome to the club EDI."

* * *

The metal door parted before her once she came to a stop outside of Naruto's room. When her eyes landed on the person seated in the center, she immediately slapped a hand to her face in tired exasperation.

Naruto was seated cross-legged before the massive window, settled in a picture perfect lotus position. His back was turned to her, once again covered by his white cloak with the strange black symbols, and his staff lay across his waist. His pose wasn't the problem however.

The problem was that he was _floating_ a meter off the ground.

 _Because of course he was._

Shepard grimaced at the sight before her for a few moments. Then she did her best to momentarily ignore it. She cast her eyes around the changed room. She spied all of the new additions that EDI had been struggling over.

The entire room had been practically transformed, save for the walls and ceiling.

The floor, from corner to corner, was now completely covered with tatami mats. A number of strange black symbols now adorned the walls at even intervals. They appeared to be made of ink, and a muted light shone out from within those symbols. It was a soft glow rather than a beaming light, and it bathed the four corners of the room with new warmth.

The long metal couches that had once existed were no longer present. Their removal gave the room a much more open feeling. A full-size bed, low to the ground and resting on a light wooden frame, had its headboard against the left wall. It was covered in a pale orange comforter. The orange was faint, almost pastel, and the light made its color soften. A series of potted plants had also appeared, and they sat atop one of the bookcases. The light from a symbol shone down upon them. Shepard couldn't recognize their species. A quaint little watering can sat at their side.

A set of soft white curtains rested on either side of the window into space, despite the button that existed to close the blast shield. The metal recliners had also been replaced by woodworked recliners, and all of the other metal furniture save for the reading lamps had been replaced with their wooden counterparts. A table made of rich dark wood, one with an incredibly low height, rested a small distance from the door, and a number of cushions were spread out on the floor around it for seats.

Jane could practically picture what EDI had seen. Naruto, pacing in circles, making things appear out of thin air to liven up his room. It did look very nice, in a humble way. It was like some minimalist suite aboard a luxury space-yacht had been cut out and dropped into a state-of-the art warship.

If Shepard were to try to use a single word to describe the room, with its floor mats, wooden furniture, soft lighting, and potted plants…it would definitely be _zen_.

Jane tentatively stepped forward, and the door abruptly closed behind her with a hiss. As soon as it fully closed she abruptly found herself disoriented. All at once, soundwaves seemed to flee the room. She glanced around again with wide eyes. The Normandy ran quieter than any ship she'd ever seen, but stepping into this room was like stepping out into the void. So long as she didn't so much as twitch, then there wasn't a single sound to be heard. The Starboard Observation room had _somehow_ become an anechoic chamber.

"Can I help ya, Shepard-san?" Naruto broke the blaring silence by softly questioning. His body didn't shift. Only his mouth moved. His eyes did not open, and his face remained in that impassive position. His low drawl filled the four corners of the room. Jane, who'd still been busy trying to adjust to the incredible change in acoustics, swiftly twisted to face him. She swallowed the trepidation that instantly started to crawl up her throat at what would most assuredly be a moment of _truth_. She nodded hesitantly.

"Yes, I-" she instantly flinched, and her mouth snapped shut as soon as the words left it. Her voice, which had been at her regular speaking tone, had sounded like the roar of a Claymore shotgun in that encroaching silence.

Naruto didn't turn to her, but he did snort a small laugh, "Nice."

Jane felt a scarlet blush creep up her neck at that, and then did her best to copy his soft tone.

"I was hoping to ask you a few questions?"

She almost grimaced at how her voice had sounded then. She _never_ sounded like that, so unsure, so cautious. She wasn't used to it, and even someone with a deaf set of ears could tell.

Naruto didn't comment on her anxiety however. He tilted his head ever so slightly to the side, and his voice was amused, "Just a few questions?"

She could hear the smile in his voice. If it wasn't for her natural fear of the complete _unknown_ , she probably would have slapped the back of his head. The bastard _knew_ _exactly_ what he was doing. He was perfectly aware of just how _bizarre_ his abilities seemed, and he was having a good laugh at their expense, regardless of any of their encroaching mental breakdowns.

"It might be more than a few," she quietly admitted.

Naruto smiled slyly before setting his feet back on the ground. He grabbed his staff from the air to lean it up against a wall, and he shrugged off his coat to toss it over the back of a nearby chair. His fingers came together into some type of hand-sign, and all of the regular sounds of the Normandy abruptly came racing back into the room.

Shepard released a tiny sigh at that, and silently added the manipulation of soundwaves to the ever-growing list.

He faced her fully with an easy smile, "Ask away then Shepard-san. I'll try not to lie, but don't be disappointed if I decide not to answer."

She could accept that. She didn't really have many options if he _did_ decide to ignore her. She certainly couldn't put him in a closed room with Jacob and Miranda for an interrogation. She'd probably end up spaced again, with a second ship torn to shreds.

Shepard crossed her arms over her chest before leaning back on one heel. She gave Naruto a long, speculative look. Her mouth was pressed into a serious line as she watched him.

"Be _honest_ with me, at least this once," she slowly began, voice low and apprehensive, "Are you even Human…or are you something else?"

Naruto's easy smile softened a little, and he stuffed his hands into the pockets of his loose black pants, "I was born just as Human as you Shepard-san."

She nodded, silently noting that he _wasn't_ talking about whatever he was _now_. She immediately followed that up with another question.

"Are you a time traveler?"

He blurted a laughed at that, and his smile shifted into a smirk, "Nope, but if you meet somebody claiming to be one, please tell me."

She couldn't help but quirk an eyebrow at that, "Ah…Why?"

Naruto's smirk never shifted, but his eyes did harden slightly, "So I can stop them. No one should mess with time. It's a very bad idea."

He turned away from her to walk over to the expansive window into space. Jane swiftly stepped up to join him.

Naruto chuffed another short laugh at the thought before speaking again, switching topics with ease, "I'm definitely no time-traveler. I'm uh… a bit of a free agent I guess you would say, been one for a while now." He cast her a sly smile as he said this, "A rogue ninja is what they call me back home. I've grown used to drifting where the winds blow me. I think this grand mission of yours is going to be a nice change of pace."

Shepard cast him a bemused glance, "Ninja? Really?"

She knew that her omni-tool's translator detected his language as Japanese, but she'd never been one to assume. Human colonists came from all walks of life after all. He might have blonde hair and blue eyes, with strong features and an equally strong stature, but you never knew with Humans in the modern century. Furthermore, she didn't really know much about the individual countries of her home planet. She grew up in space, far away from the troubles on Mother Earth. However, she _did_ know her people's popular history. The fantastical concept of ninja had enough staying power to be present in modern Human culture even with the passage of centuries.

She was pretty sure that all of the depictions of ninja that she'd ever seen had been _very_ different from Naruto. He was more like an absolutely _busted_ comic-book character.

"That's right," he confirmed with a cheesy smile, and he thrust a thumbs-up her way, "I'm the strongest ninja you'll ever meet."

Shepard's mouth opened a fraction before she closed it again. She silently decided not to question it.

"Are you Japanese then?" She asked instead. Naruto quirked a confused eyebrow at her.

"Ah-…No. Japan is…a country on Earth, right?" he asked slowly, and his face bore a thoughtful expression, as though trying to recall a buried memory.

She nodded just as slowly, confused now rather than bemused.

"I'm definitely not Japanese then," he stated with certainty, and that ever present smile reappeared on his face.

"Uh-huh…" Shepard slowly agreed, sounding incredibly dubious, "Then where are you from?"

His smile widened imperceptibly, as though enjoying some joke only he understood.

"I'm from Earth silly."

Jane floundered at that. She wasn't _silly_. He'd _just_ been struggling to name Japan, a major nation of their home planet, only to turn around and claim to _be_ from their home planet. Besides, Humans had colonies too! He could be from anywhere! It was a valid question!

He wasn't telling her _something_ , that was as obvious as the grin on his face. For all she knew, he could be leading her around with completely inane answers.

She scrubbed a hand across her brow, and gave up on that avenue of questioning, "Fine, forget it."

She stepped away with crossed arms, and Naruto stayed at the window. He didn't turn to watch her when she began to pace back and forth for a few moments. She almost walked away then, sort of resigned to getting nothing but _odd_ responses at this point, but she decided to hold her ground for at least a little while longer. She couldn't leave without _some_ answers.

She stopped her pacing, and gestured tiredly in his direction, "These… _things_ …you can do. Are they done with technology? Or is it something… _else_?"

Naruto briefly shot her a sharp smile, and his narrowed gaze shone with suppressed mirth. There was a sudden cunning there, a deviousness in his eyes that unsettled her. "Oh no, Shepard-san…I don't use technology. It's _power_."

Jane couldn't help the leaden weight that settled in her gut at those words. It was a sinking feeling of dread. That _was not_ the answer that she'd wanted.

"Power?" Shepard heard herself quietly ask, and she couldn't have stopped the question if she'd tried. A statement like that demanded questions.

"Yep," he answered easily, sounding almost cheerful. The sudden disappearance of that deviousness threw her, "My power. My abilities. Strength that I can decide to use as I see fit."

Another chill of apprehension traveled up her spine. _To_ _use as he saw fit_ were more words she desperately hadn't wanted to hear. If he was an angel come forth to cut down the wicked, at least she'd be able to predict a _little_ of what he'd do. Likewise, if he was some kind of unholy demon.

If he was just some loose cannon with heavy ordinance packed into his shells, some kind of bullshit chaotic-neutral, then there was _no_ _telling_ what he'd do. A small part of her actually _hoped_ that he really was lying through his teeth.

Her gut told her that he wasn't though. That feeling was damning. He was telling the truth, vague though it might be. It was still the truth nonetheless.

"And I've decided to use my power to help ya," he abruptly continued, sounding completely assured. He steadily ignored her mounting apprehension, "It'll be fine. You just keep doing what you're doing, and I'll back you up. We'll beat the Reapers together, Shepard-san. Trust me on that."

He nodded at her with a soft smile. It was so earnest, so heartfelt, that she couldn't help but believe him.

He really _did_ plan on helping her.

Even with that undeniable assurance, her mind was still deeply incredulous.

Sure. She'd definitely _heard_ him declare his loyalty several hours prior, but they'd _also_ just _met_ several hours prior. She barely got to say a few sentences before he slid into her squad's formation as if he'd planned their meeting from the very start. The notion that this Naruto was actually in her corner, even without knowing _anything_ about him, was baffling.

A new question burned in her heart at that. She couldn't help it. She was so used to having her warnings spurned, of being belittled and mocked, that being faced with such complete support was mind-blowing. It was almost unnatural. No one had ever just _believed_ her warnings about the Reapers. Not without some kind of solid proof. Even her own crew on the first Normandy had been dubious at the start. She didn't like to admit it, but she was fairly certain that they'd _all_ had doubts, right up until they met Sovereign on Virmire. Then that nightmarish hologram had spoken, prophesying their doom, and there hadn't been any more time for doubts.

"Why help me?" she questioned, the words tumbling from her lips. She gestured imploringly in his direction, looking so utterly lost, "Why would you just drop everything to join me?"

He laughed lightly, and waved a hand in dismissal, "Ha-you act as if I had anything to drop. I'm a free man Shepard-san. No more paper-work to tie me down, no wars to fight, no kids to raise-" Shepard's jaw almost went slack at that last one, "The truth is, I haven't done anything _worthwhile_ in a long time." His grin sharpened again, brimming with anticipation, "And if these Reapers are as dangerous as you believe, then this crusade of yours is definitely worthwhile."

Jane searched Naruto's expression for the slightest trace of falsehood, silently hoping she'd actually be able to tell. All she saw was complete sincerity.

"That can't be all of it," she still denied with a harsh wave of her hand, "I've got nothing to show you. No proof that the Reapers even exist. Only a madman would take it all on faith."

She was certain of that at least. No matter how desperately she wanted people to listen, how dearly she hoped that her warnings would be heeded, she still knew in the depths of her heart that no one would ever simply take her at her word. She'd only ever met one person who outright believed her, no questions asked, and he was standing right in front of her. Out of everyone she knew, he was also the one most likely to be a certified madman, if only for the things he was capable of.

"Oi," he deadpanned, sounding mildly irked, "I'm not crazy, I just knew you were telling the truth. I can sense that kind of stuff."

Those two sentences took a moment to settle in her mind, and whatever she'd planned on saying fled. She couldn't stop herself from freezing once her brain fully processed what she'd just heard. He could… _sense_ …when people were lying, and he _knew_ when they told him the truth.

He could sense a person's misdeeds too.

Those two outlandish concepts bounced around in her head for a short moment, before she quite abruptly found herself jumping to a terrifying conclusion. It came out of left field, but the more she thought about it, the more horrified she became.

He couldn't…he _wasn't_ ….

Naruto smiled weakly in the face of her rapidly shifting expression, "Ah-don't worry. I'm not reading people's minds."

Shepard's eyes instantly grew to the size of dinner plates, and a cacophony of screeched curses erupted in her head. That mounting horror she'd been feeling swiftly changed into pounding adrenaline.

 _He was reading her fucking mind._

She didn't even have the chance to think about it for more than a moment. Her body, so drenched in combat, so used to the rigors of constant warfare, and so _completely high-strung_ , reacted entirely of its own volition. The pulsing adrenaline in her ears demanded nothing less. Within the span of a second, she took a half step back to plant her stance, and launched a brutal haymaker directly toward his weakly smiling face.

His eyes widened like hers at the sight of her flying strike. He squawked loudly in surprise before flowing around her fist like water. He threw up his hands nonthreateningly, waving them around with earnest. She stood there woodenly with her arm outstretched, and she watched as the one person she knew who could completely _destroy_ her appeared to scuttle away.

"Oi Oi! What's that for?! I told you I'm _not_ reading people's minds!"

Shepard didn't immediately answer his aggrieved cry. Her mind was wrapped up in the horror of what she'd just done. She'd actually thrown a punch at Naruto. She hadn't meant to do it. She really, _truly_ hadn't. She would need to be completely suicidal to attack him. The moment her brain had registered the muscles in her arms contracting, and she'd felt her body instinctively fall into a stance, her heart had almost shot out of her ass in fear.

For the barest split second, she'd honestly expected to die.

When that inevitably didn't happen, and her heart, mind, and body simultaneously realized they were still alive, she immediately started apologizing. She waved her hands emphatically before her while she scrambled to speak.

"Fuck I-..I'm so sorry Naruto! I-I can't…I didn't mean to do that! I -…"

Her blurted apologies abruptly died on her tongue when her mind finally registered the sentence he'd cried before hers. She hadn't processed it then, what with her brain blaring warnings of imminent death, but she did process it now.

As soon as she did, she abruptly remembered exactly _WHY_ her self-preservation instincts had decided to wildly throw a punch.

Shepard surged forward with her hands outstretched. Naruto didn't lower his own hands, nor did he try to evade her a second time. Her fists found his collar, and she yanked the blonde man down into the path of her intense, _deadly_ gaze.

" _Stay the FUCK out of my mind,"_ Jane positively hissed, her face twisting into a rictus of rage, all of her fumbling apologies completely forgotten.

She could deal with a lot of things. She could handle death. She could handle having her body broken, and then pieced back together. A higher percentage of her body mass had either been outright regrown or rebuilt to save her original. The sanctity of her body was a thing of the past.

But she would _never_ give up the sanctity of her mind. The Reapers, or _anyone_ else, would have to put her back into the grave long before she surrendered that.

"Damn it Shepard-san!" Naruto indignantly declared, even as he made no move to escape her steel grip. The tiny part of her mind that wasn't drowned in fury knew that he could shake her off with absolute ease, but for some reason refrained from doing so, "For the third time! I don't read people's minds!"

Jane gripped his collar harder, and pulled him even closer. They were almost nose to nose, and she growled her next question.

" _Can_ you read minds?!"

He leaned away from her a little even as she held on tight to his shirt. One of his raised hands came back behind his head to scratch it sheepishly. His eyes danced away from hers, and he awkwardly smiled at the wall, "Eh-heh…not really?"

 _NOT REALLY?!_

She rapidly shook him by the collar, and barely kept herself from outright screeching, "That's not a fucking answer!"

It seemed that in the end, no matter how much time she'd spent pacing in her cabin trying to steel her calm, she still ended up yelling at him.

She nearly started yelling _again_ when he began openly _laughing_ while she shook him back and forth, "Al-ri-ght! Al-ri-ght She-pard-san! I'll te-ll you, ju-st stop thro-ttl-ing me!"

Jane stopped shaking him, but she didn't release the death grip she had near his throat.

He huffed a breath before brushing some of the hair out of his eyes. He made no comment on the fact that she'd still failed to release him. If anything, he looked equal parts entertained and exasperated.

"I can touch another's heart. I can sense it from a distance too. It's _very_ different from reading someone's mind," he stated simply, as if he thought that was enough. It definitely wasn't.

"How?" she demanded, her face uncompromising.

"Ehh?" was his somewhat confused reply, "You want to know how I do it?"

She instantly shook her head. She would definitely like to know that at some point, but that took the back seat to what was currently on her mind.

"How is it _different_? How are you _not_ reading my mind?"

"Well ah…" he began, and he scratched the side of his head again in thought. He still seemed completely uncaring to her continued manhandling. "It's like I said earlier I guess. I can sense people's hearts, whether they're evil or good. I can't actually hear their _thoughts_ or anything. I can tell how they're feeling, like if they're angry or sad, and I can definitely tell if someone is telling me a lie." He suddenly shrugged, feeling nonchalant under her hands, "Those are things anyone can tell by reading body language though. Besides, hearts and minds are hardly ever on the same wavelength. It takes a special type of person to reach that level of harmony you know?"

Her steel grip slowly slackened as he spoke. She _sort of_ understood, but at the same time, she really _didn't_. How could she? Reading a mind was already far enough beyond her imagination, and reading a heart took that in a whole new direction.

"And if I can tell if someone is lying to me?" he continued, as if the conclusion was readily apparent, "Well then that obviously means…?"

He trailed off at that while giving her an expectant look, as if she should fill in that blank. She did after a moment, since the conclusion, no matter how bizarre, was still a little obvious.

"Then you can tell when someone is telling the truth," she quietly finished, all of her earlier fury drained away. Her hands fell from his collar to hang limply at her sides.

He nodded reassuringly, and that kind smile of his was back, "Yes. I knew you were telling me the truth Shepard-san. I didn't go through any of your memories, and I didn't read any of your thoughts. I didn't need to. Your heart was resolute. You did not flinch, and you did not lie."

He stopped speaking for a moment to look at her. She nearly took a step away from him, not because she felt intimidated, but because she didn't know how to react.

It was the _way_ he was looking at her at that moment, in a way that she had never experienced before. His eyes were intense yet distant, seeing something in her that she could not see, something that _no_ _one_ else could ever possibly see. He tilted his head ever so slightly to the left while stuffing his hands back into his pockets. That carefree smile of his slowly shifted into something truly captivating. It was incredibly genuine, with a warmth she'd never felt before. His blue eyes crinkled at the corners, and when he spoke again, his voice came out very soft.

"You have a good heart, you know?"

Jane was struck completely speechless by that one simple compliment.

It wasn't the words themselves, she'd heard them before. Captain Anderson had told her that once upon a time, back when she was still his Executive Officer, and her mother had as well so very long ago. Friends like Garrus always encouraged her, reassuring her every step of the way that she was doing the right thing.

So no, it wasn't the words. It was the meaning. The fact that, when he said those words, he meant them in a way that no one else ever could. She could see it in his eyes, the way he looked at her, and somehow really _saw_ _her_ for _who_ she was. The fact that he was capable of smiling like that while seeing her heart, even with all of the blood on her hands, struck her with silence.

"You don't believe me, do you?" he suddenly stated more than asked, and his eyebrows scrunched together slightly, "I'm not lying Shepard-san. You _are_ a good person, I knew it the moment we met. I would not be here if you weren't."

He suddenly took a step forward, and a touch of sympathy joined that captivating smile, "Do you want to know what else I see? The other reason why I decided to join you?"

Jane didn't speak, still at a loss for words, but she did nod her head slowly.

"Your heart thinks it's alone," he stated with confidence, and his words had a certain weight to them, "That no one will stand beside you to face the end of the world. You feel like no one truly understands what is coming, and that you'll have to watch, powerless, as the galaxy crumbles. Granted, that has changed a little since we found that Turian friend of yours, but you still feel like it's not enough. That it will _never_ be enough. You're getting desperate, constantly putting one foot in front of the other, hoping that maybe tomorrow the rest of the world will finally _listen_."

Every word was a punch in the gut. As much as she didn't want to admit it, everything he said was the truth.

It hadn't always been that way though.

Her heart hadn't felt this way when she'd clashed with Saren atop the Citadel, at a time when she knew full well what nightmares lurked beyond the galaxy's rim. She'd had her crew with her then, her dearest friends, and she'd known without a shadow of a doubt that she was doing the _right thing_. She was saving the Citadel, saving the Council, and stopping the Reaper's invasion before it could even begin. Her path had been clear before her, obvious with its need, and everything had made sense in her heart. They'd won, cut down Sovereign and defeated Saren, and she'd truly hoped that the next step would have been obvious to everyone.

But then no one had believed her.

The Reapers were swept under the rug first, and then _she_ was swept under the rug.

And then, as if having her doomsday warnings laughed at and ignored wasn't enough, she'd then died a gruesome death.

Finally, after two years, she rose from the dead, only to find that she'd lost everything. Her life, her ship, and her best friends…and she found that even after two years, no one was doing anything about the Reapers. Now, she had to rely on _Cerberus,_ and her heart couldn't see that clear cut path anymore. A great shadow loomed before her instead, yawning open and intent on devouring her.

A hand abruptly came down to rest on her shoulder, and she stirred to gaze at Naruto. He stood before her, reassurance radiating off his frame. His eyes held a solemn promise.

" _I_ _am listening_ , Shepard-san. Your fight is a worthy one. You want to save the world, and no one can do that alone," his smile turned just the slightest bit wry, "Not even me."

He patted her shoulder once, and then slowly steered her toward the door. She still hadn't said a word, her tongue still tied in several knots, but she did start slightly when the door to the 3rd deck snapped open.

"As long as you have good friends watching your back…," he suddenly continued, and she looked over her shoulder to find his eyes again. His blue eyes were gazing down the small hallway, seeing people she could not, and his voice was soft with distant, happy reminiscence, "So long as you have good people worth protecting, you can face anything the world throws at you."

He looked down at her again, and his eyes crinkled as he smiled brightly. He patted her shoulder for the second time, and gave her a little nudge out the door, "Go get some sleep Shepard-san, I can tell you need it. We'll talk more later yeah?"

Jane did not immediately leave however. She twisted where she stood, and her hand rose in a silent request. Naruto did not turn away. Her voice abruptly returned, and she finally spoke. Her next words came out incredibly soft.

" _Thank you_."

There was nothing more she could say. She could only thank him. For saving Garrus, for joining her team, for just outright _believing_ _her_ …

That last one meant more to her than she could ever express.

He shrugged easily, as if he hadn't done anything of note, as if he hadn't completely _wrecked_ all of her preconceptions, and his farewell smile was stunning, "You're very welcome Commander Shepard."

She nodded slowly, still a little numb, before taking a step away. She turned back a second later however, having made a sudden decision, and her voice was still very soft.

"And please…call me Shepard. Just Shepard."

It honestly felt a little strange having someone like _him_ call her Commander. It didn't feel right at all. Titles and accolades meant nothing in the face of his status, whatever the hell that happened to be.

He nodded agreeably, "I can do that. I've never really cared about that stuff either." He abruptly rose a hand to make a small shooing motion, and his easy smile gained a touch of exasperation, "Now please, go get some rest Shepard, you're gonna crash any second now. You can tell me all about your next plans in the morning."

He spoke the truth. As soon as she'd numbly walked away, and the elevator doors had closed behind her, she'd almost fallen asleep right there on the floor.

An overwhelming amount of weight fell from her shoulders as she swayed there. So much sheer relief had flooded her heart, and all of the anxiety there had simply fled. It left her light headed, and her skin buzzed along with her skewed senses. She practically stumbled out of the elevator into her cabin, her vision losing focus a little as she tried to find her bed.

She collapsed onto its surface with a quiet _whoomph_ , and she completely neglected to take off her clothes. She curled up a little, twisting into her bedsheets, and between one second and the next, fell into the sweet embrace of unconsciousness.

Jane slept like a rock, and her mind was completely devoid of nightmares. Hope, solid and sure, had finally taken their place.

* * *

Shepard stood behind the shoulder of Joker's chair with her arms crossed, and she watched as he pulled the Normandy down into a sweeping dive that brought them within the Citadel's outstretched arms. The breathless quality of the view had long ago lost its luster. She'd seen _extraordinary_ things in her relatively short career, and while she did remember being awed by the view on her first few visits, she didn't feel quite so star struck now.

She'd fought in its back-alleys, and shot up its bars. She'd trekked along its arms in zero-g, fighting through waves of geth to save its people. It was here that she'd argued with the leaders of the known galaxy, and it was here that she'd been called a delusional fool, even if they'd been _kind_ enough not to use those exact words.

Suffice it to say, it didn't feel quite so awe-inspiring to gaze upon the Citadel anymore. All she saw was a death-trap that could have been, and the place that all of her troubles always seemed to circle back to.

"I wonder what the Council is gonna say when they see your face Commander," Jeff suddenly stated, sounding amused at the idea.

She grimaced, not wanting to think about the impending meeting, "Oh I think I have an idea. Showing up in a Cerberus ship isn't going to do me any favors either."

"Yeah, about that," Joker continued, sounding amused but also exasperated, "Does Cerberus actually know that they're a black-ops organization? They're supposed to know what being covert is right?"

He shrugged, "Because painting their insignia, bold as day, on the side of our ship really helps with staying under the radar. They did a great job with that one."

Jane couldn't help smiling a little at her pilot, "I'll be sure to pass the word on to Miranda about getting a new paintjob."

"Ah…" Jeff hesitated, suddenly sounding cautious, "No-no, it's fine. Please don't tell her I'm talking bad about the ship. Even if it did come installed with a back-seat driver."

EDI, who had recently started sniping back at Joker for his many insults, remained strangely silent for once.

A moment passed as Jane watched the Normandy SR2 gently soar through the void as it approached its temporarily assigned docking bay. It wasn't until a dash of gold entered her peripheral vision, making her jump slightly, that she noticed exactly why EDI had gone silent.

Naruto had suddenly materialized behind the other shoulder of Joker's chair. She steeled her nerves, resisting the urge to scold him for startling her so badly. She silently hoped that over time she'd get used to him randomly appearing out of thin air...along with everything _else_. She also valiantly resisted the creeping flush of embarrassment that crawled up her neck at the sight of him. She'd been both incredibly tired, and incredibly high-strung when she'd gone to talk to him the night before. Jane had desperately needed sleep at the time, but she wouldn't have _been_ _able_ to sleep if she'd tried to put off talking to him until morning. Remembering not only the way she'd acted, but also reacted, left her more than a little mortified.

"That's quite the view!" Naruto suddenly stated with some elation, and his eye were riveted on the arms of the massive station looming above them, "That's definitely the biggest station I've ever seen!"

It was a moment too late when Shepard realized what was going to happen, and her embarrassment fled from her. She watched, a wince on her face, as Joker was startled so badly that he nearly flew out of his seat. She heard him curse loudly in surprise, his neck twisting to spy the _very loud_ person suddenly standing right behind his ear.

The wince on her face twitched with phantom pain as Joker's elbow came crashing back down again on his armrest.

The crack was loud enough to be heard around the cockpit, and Joker's choked gasp was just as loud. Shepard immediately surged forward, intent on aiding him however she could, but as if he'd sensed her Joker waved her off. He was so used to cracking his own bones that all he did was close his eyes and clench his teeth. He seethed there silently as he got the pain under control. Once he could speak again without growling, he glanced in EDI's direction,

"EDI," he began through his still clenched teeth, "Take over." He then swiveled his chair around to glare at Naruto while clutching his elbow. The blonde for his part looked almost as startled as Joker had been.

"Alright blondie," Joker snapped, visibly trying to keep calm, "Do me a favor, and never come up to the cockpit again."

Naruto, who'd been standing there in silent surprise until Joker had turned his irritation on him, began to emphatically wave his hands in front of his face.

"Ah-no!" he cried, looking overwhelmingly apologetic, "I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to scare you like that! Here, let me fix it!"

As soon as those words left his mouth, Jane's felt like she'd been struck by a lightning bolt.

She watched, dumbstruck, as Naruto's right hand plopped down on Jeff's SR2 hat. Her jaw practically hit the floor, and her expression shifted, making her look remarkably like someone who'd just been slapped on the cheek with a dead fish. Her mind had instantly ground to a halt, and it could only articulate three select words.

 _Oh my God…_

Joker suddenly looked murderous. He was still clutching his injured elbow so he couldn't bat at Naruto's hand. However, he did try and dip away from the palm now resting on his head…key word being _try_ , "Hey! I wasn't scared! And back off! Get your hands off me dude! You've already-"

Joker abruptly froze solid where he sat. All of his indignant protests suddenly died on his tongue. He appeared as still as a marble statue with his mouth still open, looking as though someone had taken that same dead fish and then beat him over the head with it. Not a single sound escaped his throat. His eyes, which had been glaring at Naruto hard enough to set him on fire, suddenly glazed over, and he stared out into the middle distance completely unseeing.

Naruto for his part looked briefly perplexed, "Huh," he stated after a long moment, breaking the choking silence that had suddenly fallen over the cock-pit, "Never seen that one before."

His right hand finally fell away from Joker's motionless head, and it reached up to sheepishly scratch the back of his own, "I'm really sorry about that, I just got a little excited I guess." He leaned forward a little with an awkward smile, "Now, how are you feeling?"

Joker didn't answer him. He just kept blankly staring ahead. Eventually, as his brain slowly came back online, he craned his neck back to look up at the standing blonde. Kind cerulean eyes stared right back. Shepard stood paralyzed off to the side, and her own eyes were absolutely rivetted on Jeff's still face.

She got to watch as that motionless face silently started to cry.

His visage didn't twist with sadness or pain. It remained utterly blank. He didn't wail or sob. He remained perfectly silent. However, speechless tears still left track marks down his cheeks. He steadily began to quiver in his seat, seemingly unable to control his own body's reactions anymore as it finally began to realize what had just happened.

Jeff's eyes slowly looked back down again, and he stared down at the palms of his shaking hands. He clenched them into a pair of fists, causing them to still. There was a creak of leather as the Normandy's pilot slowly rose from his chair.

Jane watched, her voice still a long distant memory, as one of her dearest friends stood tall with his back completely straight for what was probably the first time in his entire life. He was violently trembling, shaking down to his very boots, but he was still standing tall.

"What…"Joker's quivering voice began, and it came out as a croak of utter disbelief, "The _Fuck_. Did you just do?"

Naruto hesitated a little while tilting his head to the left, as if the question was a strange one. He then smiled reassuringly, "Well I ah…healed you, ya know? You broke your elbow because of me. I had to do something, right?"

Joker kept staring at the blonde standing in front of him, and the tears on his face did not stop. Jeff stood there, looking like a lost child, and his shoulders steadily started to shake even harder. Eventually, when no other explanation was given, he turned that utterly lost look on his Commander.

Jane almost found herself choking up when she saw the sheer emotion shining in Jeff's eyes.

He looked like he honestly didn't know what to do with himself.

 _She couldn't even_ _imagine_ …

Joker didn't say anything for a very long time. Jane didn't say anything either, both unwilling and unable to stir that heavy silence. Naruto just kept standing there with a smile on his face. EDI carried right on with docking the Normandy while no one was watching, and the minutes steadily ticked by.

Finally, Joker stirred again, but it wasn't to speak to either of them.

Instead, he took off running.

Naruto and Jane got a firsthand view of what a formerly handicapped man looks like while sprinting for the first time. His feet fumbled a little, but he did not stop. He careened into people, but he did not stop. His tears blinded him as he ran, but he _did_ _not_ _stop_. His legs pumped with a strength that he'd never known as he tore down the bridge at a full tilt.

Every single person on the CIC stopped what they were doing to stare, completely dumbstruck, as a man they all knew _couldn't run_ , proceeded to _blitz_ his way through the command center. Their heads twisted in unison to watch the stunningly beautiful trainwreck in motion. They couldn't look away from the honest-to-god _miracle_ taking place in front of them. More than a few found themselves dropping what they'd been holding. A cacophony layered itself over Joker's charge as a _lot_ of coffee cups slipped from numb grasps to shatter on the cold metal floor.

Jane watched him reach the elevator with her feet still glued to the floor. He almost frantically dived into it, heavily slamming into the metal wall with his shoulder, and the last thing she saw was his tearstained face as he slapped the button on the wall. Then he was gone, and Jane was left alone in the cock-pit with the Normandy's resident miracle worker.

"Ah..." Naruto suddenly began, seeming a little uncertain, "I-uh…I hope he's…alright. Maybe you should follow him to make sure he's okay."

His voice seemed to finally break whatever spell had fallen over her. She slowly turned back to stare at him, and she wasn't all that surprised to discover that her hands had started shaking as well. She also didn't immediately take off to follow Jeff as he'd suggested.

"…You just healed all of his bones."

It wasn't a question. The sight of Joker sprinting down the CIC was proof enough of what he'd done. Her mouth just couldn't think of anything else to say.

"I did," Naruto agreed with a little nod, and then he shrugged lightly "I also fixed the fault in his genetics. If I hadn't, his bones would have deteriorated again."

It was like he was talking about the weather.

Jane stood there and watched him for a solid minute. Naruto for his part started to shift self-consciously just a little under her incredibly intense gaze.

It was like what he'd just done didn't even register for him. It was as if to him, he'd truly done _nothing_ _at_ _all_.

She finally turned away then, simply unable to look at his face. She couldn't stay in his presence any longer. She needed to get away and stop talking to him.

Because if she didn't, she wasn't sure what would come out her mouth next. She'd already made a fool of herself last night. She was determined to not let it happen again the very next morning.

So rather than break down in tears at the _monumental_ thing he'd just done, rather than throw herself at him wailing her gratitude, she turned away to hoarsely address the nearby AI.

"EDI," she quietly began before clearing her throat a little, doing her best to hide the tremble in her voice, "Where's Joker?"

The blue orb appeared at her terminal on the ship's dash, "Flight Lieutenant Moreau is currently in the Medical Bay speaking with Doctor Chakwas."

Jane knew that 'speaking' was not the proper term for what was most definitely happening down there. She was going to walk into a _lot_ of ugly crying.

She nodded weakly in the blue orb's direction before doing an about-face. She trekked down the path Joker had just bulldozed through, and she ignored all of the bridge personnel who had descended into stupefied chaos. Everyone was busy animatedly discussing what they'd just seen, but she did not stop to tell them to get back to work. She silently stepped into the elevator and selected the crew quarters as her destination.

The last thing she saw of the CIC was Naruto standing at the end. He was watching her as well, and he bore a sad smile as he stood there alone.

Then the elevator snapped closed, and she was left just as alone.

Within that tiny steel box, her shoulders started to silently shake…and she realized that she was _never_ going to get used to the things he did.

* * *

 **Author's note: Hello again, good to see you. Thanks for reading another chapter of mine. I really enjoyed the ending on this one, mainly because...well...Jeff. He's my boy. Nobody messes with Jeff. When I found out what happened to his family, and how that Asari in the hospital had done it, I damn near broke down in tears. For real. TOO real.**

 **Anyway, I went back and made some more grammar corrections. I hope you'll bear with me. I want this fic to be polished, even if it may end in a complete train-wreck. Like I said before, I won't be changing any of the story. I'll only be fixing grammar. That said, if you were the one anon who pointed out my mistake on the colors of the symbols on Naruto's hands, then thank you. I somehow managed to write them both as black...my bad. The sun was supposed to be white, so that was unplanned.**

 **I'm not sure when the next update will come. I've got an final exam tomorrow...and I'm still writing this thing anyway. I'm a fool, but I couldn't help it. I'm going to be busy for the next...while. I got a lot of stuff on my plate, but I hope you will understand. Finally, Thank you to _everyone_ for the support. This story has been up for 3 weeks thus far, and were rapidly approaching 700 followers. That's kind of whack. Anyway, thanks again, and I'll see you next time. **


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